


Ace of Spades

by Seven_tan



Category: Tiger & Bunny
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Drunk Sex, M/M, Pining, former Ouroboros!Kotetsu
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-05
Updated: 2014-05-05
Packaged: 2018-01-22 01:21:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 28,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1570739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seven_tan/pseuds/Seven_tan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For T&B Anon meme-For Kotetsu, falling in love with his new partner wasn't going to be easy. Especially not when the gang he belonged to when he was younger turns out to be the same one that killed his family.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. prolouge

Wild Tiger, as much as Barnaby, Agnes, and many of HeroTV's fans liked to sometimes speculate, wasn't stupid.

He was fairly oblivious, to be sure, and doted on his daughter like a fool, and more often than not made an ass of himself on national television, but he'd like to think of himself as a fairly intelligent man working his way into his late thirties.

However, he'd been extremely stupid when he'd been younger. And no, not the 'oh, I smoked a little pot and stole stuff from a few stores', kind of stupid. More like, 'I hero worshiped a guy who'd perfected killing to an art form, could read minds, and was convicted to roughly around six hundred years in jail. Oh, also, I joined a crime ring and got a small, but really noticeable and terrible tattoo that will out me as a member for the rest of my life' kind of stupid.

More often than not, Kotestu resented/raged at his younger self for being such a complete moron.

Especially when coupled with copious amounts of booze and perhaps Antonio, who didn't actually ever manage to understand his half drunken ramblings as far as he knew (probably because, at that point in his intoxicated state, he usually wasn't terribly coherent).

Usually, nothing was to be gained about worrying about something like this. Yes, he was dumb when he was younger, so what? He was a reformed man now, thanks to his late wife, bless her. Kotetsu regretted doing the things he did back when he was a brat, yes, but well. That was almost 25 years ago. A shoddy past was something you kind of tended to...avoid, really, and it made his life all the better for it.

There had been no scandals, no media coverage, no nothing. Kotetsu was actually kind of proud of himself for not letting anything slip about his past. Well, nothing important or incriminating, anyway. Just a few mentions of going to school with Antonio, boring stuff like that.

He'd worked hard to redeem himself as a man, even harder as a husband and father. He'd built himself the "perfect" life-minus his beloved wife, but well, things like that happen, right? And he'd worked so hard for that. In order to do his job, he had to be able to look his coworkers in the eye without feeling like he was cheating them out of something important, like, oh say, basically a mafia upbringing.

His tenth year into the business of being a Hero, just after Ben quit and he'd become the sidekick to the latest addition to the team, the tightly woven life that he'd painstakingly created began to unravel. And the results would be devastating, for both him, and the man he would soon come to call his friend.


	2. Chapter 1

Kotestu T. Kaburagi was seriously not having a good day today.

Last night had been kind of...not good either. The call from Kaede, as usual, lightened his spirits considerably, but, well, he had forgotten a rehearsal of hers, and having to dodge her accusations that he wouldn't show up was always difficult, especially because he knew that most of those accusations were quite true.

This morning had been a complete fiasco. He'd fallen over in the shower, for a start, and just about thrown out his back. That sucked, especially considering the fact that he would no doubt be heckled mercilessly for it should he show any pain, really, thanks to Barnaby's new moniker for him.

He'd also decided to follow his gut and cover up the tattoo today. Yeah it was on his hip, and that was a place that...not a lot of people really looked at at his age, if he was honest with himself, but...his gut instinct had never really failed him. Usually it was pretty right to a tee, so he didn't think anything of it when he applied the makeup.

"Premonitions" about his tattoo (if they could even be called that) were never a good sign that the day was going to go well. It was kind of an unwritten rule, or something.

From then on, until he managed to get to the office for the first few hours before the call about the statues, it was nothing but (minor) disaster. His favorite coffee shop was closed, he got caught in construction, and then in traffic after that. The only good thing about this morning was that he'd not had to do any paperwork before he got called off to his actual job (Though he really could have done without meeting his new boss' secretary, because wow was she ever hard to deal with). The whole fiasco with the statues really didn't do much to help his mood, especially since it was Bunny, of all bloody people, to save his daughter and not him. Also, hearing his own child "fangirl" over his complete jackass of a partner? Not cool. 

Helping that kid feel better about his NEXT abilities was kind of a plus, though, he guessed, though he'd come bloody close to mentioning something he shouldn't have. Either way, it had been a fairly mediocre day, all in all, and he was truthfully quite glad it was over with.

Home now, finally, Kotestu took off his shoes and dropped his coat on the couch. He sauntered further into his house, shedding clothes as he did so, before stepping into the shower.

Fiddling with the knobs a bit, he waiting until the water was giving off steam to step in, and sighed. He doubted Jake would be happy to see him now, even if he weren't imprisoned for the rest of his life. Not that Kotetsu was feeling particulairly strongly about going to see him in the first place, but even so, when someone technically saves you and takes you in for the better part of your teenage life, it's pretty rude to completely throw away their ideals after they get imprisoned and you get married. Jake had been obsessed with the idea that NEXTs were better than normal humans, and when he'd killed the two robbers, and Kotetsu had thrown the third ('the one who pointed a gun to your head' he thought) into a wall, killing him, Jake had...

Kotetsu laughed, a little bitterly. To say that Jake Martinez had "taken him in" would be much too strong, it was more like he allowed him to tag along. And then, when Kriem came, having been abandoned by her parents after Jake had kidnapped her, it had begun to feel more like a family, albeit a pretty screwed up one.

Kotetsu's parents hadn't been physically abusive, no. But they'd been too petrified of touching him since he'd been about eight thanks in most part to his newly developed powers. When he had found Jake, he'd been twelve. Four years had cultivated a pretty skewed idea of family life. It was no surprise, then that he'd began to see Kriem and Jake as his only family.

But then, Tomoe...

He felt a pang behind his eyes at even the name, and he quickly banished his thoughts, but that didn't stop his eyes from dragging across the tattoo as he passed the mirror, nor the tears that came much, much later, in his dreams.  
__________

This was possibly the most ridiculous parody of a date that Agnes (or any body else, for that matter!) had set him up on, ever.

He'd basically been in the background the whole time, but still. Shit, they'd gone to the park, walked around, went and got ice cream, and now were having dinner together in a newly inaugurated building with, admittedly, a rather fantastic view of the city at night. At least the food was good, really. That was just about the only highlight here. 

"Old man, what's that?"

Kotetsu was about to start grumbling about more pointless questions about buildings, when he realized that Bunny wasn't actually staring out the window anymore, but instead, was rather transfixed on his face.

The honey-eyed man simply looked at him with sort of a half-smile and a cocked eyebrow. "What?"

The blonde frowned, but it wasn't as harsh as his earlier scowl. "On your ear. is it a freckle, or something?"

He froze.

"U-Um, that's..." he fidgeted, and brought a hand up to the ear in question. "...A piercing scar."

Bunny's eyebrows met his hairline, "...I never pegged you as the type to get your ears pierced. You're pretty traditional for that, don't you think?"

"I never said I had my ears pierced now!" Tiger scowled, but without any bite to it. "I used to be kind of a punk when I was a kid." 'And boy, you don't know how much of an understatement that is, kid.' "That's why it's a scar, Bunny, and not just a piercing."

The blonde looked appropriately shocked, but then it quickly melted into a more relaxed almost-smile. "Well, I guess that does make sense, then. You actually do seem like the type to be a kid-delinquent." scratch that, it was definitely a smirk.

"Brat. You're definitely not cute at all."


	3. Chapter 2

All in all, the evening was going pretty well. The food was excellent, and the wine was alright (he found out that Bunny liked Rose wine and wrinkled his nose. It definitely wasn't his favorite, that's for sure.) and Barnaby's company was actually...somewhat manageable. He was polite, pleasant for the most part, and relatively subdued. 

Perhaps he could get used to this whole partner thing...

A loud, mechanical screech interrupted his thoughts, before a woman's voice came on the intercom: "Attention, Attention. A terrorist threat has been made on the building. Please follow the directions of the staff. Please remain calm."

He blinked in surprise and quickly stood, as did Bunny, and immediately afterwards, a man in uniform came running into the room from the hall.

"Everyone please evacuate immediately. Line up single file, and go straight from here to the front doors."

"What's going on?"

Bunny had already advanced upon the man, who was looking at him with some confusion. Kotetsu quickly walked up and joined him, as did Agnes and her crew. "Wild Tiger and Barnaby Brooks Jr." she helpfully supplied with a wide smile. The man did not return it, although that was hardly a social faux-pas in this case.

"Oh! I see." The man looked startled, and backed away a step. He lowered his voice tremendously, so as not to draw more attention to themselves. "...Please, don't tell anyone this, but there was a bomb threat. We received a letter-" 

He wiped his brow awkwardly, looking like he was just barely holding himself together. 

Bunny looked at him quickly, obviously worried, before looking back to the employee. "Have you found it yet?"

"...N-no."

He could hear Bunny talking lowly with the man no doubt trying to assess the situation further, or to try and get access to the letter that had been delivered, but Kotetsu payed no attention, focusing instead on the memory of the technician that they had passed earlier in the elevator. That man...hadn't looked like any maintenance guy that they had seen since, and had been completely clean, although smelled very suspiciously of metal. He'd passed him off as any other electrician, but this was a bit too tidy to be coincidence.

"Old man?"

Jerking bodily out of his thoughts at his partner's voice, Kotetsu, set his mouth in a grim line. "Sorry, Bunny, but can you handle things here for a minute? I have to go." 

"What the- wait! Old man-"

He'd already set off towards the elevator, but Bunny grabbed his wrist, spinning him around with the momentum. Kotetsu looked his partner in the eye and whispered to him lightly "Just get everyone here to follow that guy's orders. You can follow me afterwards; I think I have a lead. Now let me go."

He could see Bunny's dark face all the way down the stairs.  
___________

The gentle clicking of the blonde's boots running to catch up behind him were all he could focus on as he speed walked away from his position by the staircase. Kotetsu grimaced, and looked down at the camera that Agnes had forced on him after she'd evacuated.

Through all of his experience with Ouroboros and HeroTV, he'd actually never been taught how to diffuse a bomb, and he was starting to panic a bit. The amount of explosives there was enough to blow up half the city block, for God's sake, and if neither he nor Barnaby knew how to get rid of the thing, then they were in deep trouble. Kotetsu hadn't actually ever thought that not knowing what the hell to do with a bomb would be an issue or that bombs themselves would ever really be an issue for him, but well, now it was turning out to be a major problem.

His partner fell into step with him easily, and Kotetsu flicked around to get a good look at his face. 

"Don't panic."

Bunny looked at him, suddenly paying attention. "Obviously."

"There's a lot." the 'of C4' was implied, but he didn't really want anyone to overhear and cause another panic. He didn't turn around to see Bunny's expression this time. "And we don't have a lot of time."

Kotetsu deftly rounded the corner, and slammed the elevator button with his thumb to open the doors. "How did you know it was here?"

"That guy that we passed. He said he was oiling the cables, but his outfit was too clean to have been working with oil." Kotetsu did turn around then, and was fairly satisfied with the slightly impressed look Barnaby was giving him. "Besides, isn't it a little suspicious for a recently built building to have to have maintenance done so soon?"

Bunny cocked an eyebrow. "That's pretty good, coming from you."

He grinned, and motioned to the ceiling, where the maintenance hatch was. "That's rude. It's up there, here, I'll go and then help you up."

Before his partner could argue, he'd jumped, tapped the hatch open and grabbed onto the lip. Kotetsu grunted and swung up his other hand, hoisting himself up into the darkness. "Got a flashlight, Bunny?" He laughed.

Kotetsu could practically hear the scowl in his partner's voice. "My name isn't Bunny, it's Barnaby." He just laughed again, trying to find a bit more humour in the situation so that things didn't look quite so grim, and Barnaby sighed. "Just help me up, would you?"

One decidedly awkward tangle of limbs later, and a couple jibes at the blonde's weight, Barnaby was over at the hunk of metal, slowly opening the top case. Kotetsu flicked on the video camera that Agnes had given him just before she'd evacuated on his and Bunny's insistence.

"Are you sure that's safe?" he asked asked, more out of curiosity than concern. "I mean, it is a bomb."

The blonde pulled a pair of wire cutters out of his jacket pocket (presumably given to him by Agnes or one of her camera crew, that was a bit too convinient for him to be carrying around) and opened the tip. "Please don't talk to me, I'm going to try and diffuse this thing."

It was Kotetsu's turn to be shocked this evening. "What! You know how?"

Barnaby gave him an acrid look over his shoulder. "A Hero should be prepared for any situation. Now stop talking. I don't want to explode myself."

Kotetsu flicked on the camcorder that Agnes had given him with his thumb, and settled in to record Barnaby, tucking his legs underneath him. It smelled frankly awful in here, like paint and metal and oil, although it probably would have been worse if the building was twenty years older than it was. Obliging his partner, he stayed quiet, despite being bored, as a distraction could likely be fatal in this case.

The timer beeped steadily, now reading two minutes, as opposed to the sixteen that it had originally said when they'd first gotten here.

"Can you hurry up?" Tiger called from his position lounged on the floor beside both his partner and the explosives, still holding the camera zoomed in on Bunny's hands. Despite the imminent threat of death, he was getting kind of bored. "We don't even have any time to get out of here now, you know."

The blonde leaned back on his haunches, and wiped his forehead with the back of his sleeve. "I've done it...mostly. Now I just have to get past the trap."

"Trap?"

There was a hum from Bunny as a response. He looked over at Tiger with a frown, "There's a wire both on top of and below the detonator. If I choose the right one, the bomb is harmless, but..."

Kotetsu rolled his eyes; "Come on! If you cut the wrong one, we explode, is that it?"

Barnaby looked back down at the bomb. "Exactly."

"Choose the top one."

He scowled and looked back up. "What?"

"If you don't believe me, then the bottom one." 

"Don't rely on gut instinct at a time like this!" Bunny snapped, wheeling fully around to stare at him.

Tiger scowled right back. "Then what do your 'theories' say about this?"

"I'm trying to figure that out!"

Kotetsu sat up. The timer was at fifteen seconds. "Bunny."

"What!"

Ten.

"Go 'top'"

Five.

All he saw after that was blue.

"Oh! What's this? What's going on here! There was just something on the ceiling...Ohhh! Wild Tiger has thrown the bomb through the roof!! Closelt followed by a quite literally explosive kick from Barnaby Brooks Jr.! What amazing teamwork from HeroTV's duo!"

By the time the bomb actually exploded, they both had their feet on the floor.

"More property damage, old man? Do you really think that that was a good idea?"

Kotetsu laughed, lounging on the ground again, although this time it was outside the newly demolished building. Shame actually, this one was kinda nice. "Oh come on. It worked, didn't it? If you have just cut the top one like I told you-"

A scowl. "That's the stupidest idea I've ever heard."

His grin turned into a grimace. "Oh come on." He tossed the camera to Barnaby, who caught it nimbly. "Besides, now matter how I think about it, kicking a bomb is just not right!"

"It was a split second descision. You didn't exactly leave me a lot of time, old man." Kotetsu grinned cheekily again at that, and Barnaby's scowl returned full force. "What?"

"Isn't that relying on a gut instinct, Bunny?"

He was punched in the arm for his efforts, but Kotetsu smiled and laughed anyway. Yeah, today had been a pretty good day.


	4. Chapter 3

It was well past midnight when he got home.

Karina's voice had been beautiful, as always, but he might have had too much to drink.

Dizzy, Kotetsu slowly climbed up his fronts steps, pacing himself and attempting to walk steady. His head was spinning a bit, and everything was a bit of a blur. Antonio always called him a somber drunk, so he tried to smile, but it ended up as more of a grimace when he knocked his elblow on the wall when he was putting his keys in the door.

Stepping into his house, he toed off his shoes and unbuttoned his vest, hanging it on the rack by the door, along with his hat.

"I'm home." he said softly, though there was no one to hear him, obviously. Sparing a glance to the pictures on the far wall before plopping down on the chair, he smiled a little bittersweetly at the pictures of him and his family. Of him and Tomoe, of Tomoe and his daughter, of all three of them together. This house was so empty. Yes, he'd cleaned yesterday when he'd gotten home, but even with all of the bottles lying around, there wasn't really much difference. Without the bottles, it was just a little less pathetic to still be living here.

He calmly stretched out on the couch, his shirt riding up a bit, and checked his phone. When the message came up that said that there was no one who had contacted him, he sighed. Running his fingers through his hair, he frowned and yawned, wincing when he stretched the burn on his cheek.

"Opening your face mask in the middle of a burning building isn't smart, Kotetsu." a voice in his head reprimanded him. He curled into the couch, squishing a pillow to his stomach because he suddenly felt like sleeping, or crying. Maybe both.

"I know."

It had sounded awfully like Tomoe.  
__________

"Here, it's your birthday present. Happy Birthday, Bunny."

"...You know I wasn't serious about wanting this, right?" the jewel that the thief had stolen glinted in the setting sunlight.

Kotetsu blinked owlishly at him, before grinning at him full-force. "Not that. The prisoner, stupid. I know that it's points you want."

"Happy Birthday..." before he turned away from him, Kotetsu managed to catch a glimpse of a smile on his partner's face. "Honestly, how embarrassing."

Kotetsu had to admit that the "Good Luck Mode" that Dr. Saito had installed in their suits was definitely cool looking, even if it was mainly for show. But, watching Bunny limp away with his over sized leg and dangling the criminal NEXT by the back of his hand, knowing that he'd managed to put a smile on his face for his birthday-That was definitely cooler.  
__________

The small button stared him in the face. Pushing it, he could hear the faint ringing beyond the door, as well as some shuffling. Kotetsu shifted the package in his arms, careful not to flatten it.

When the door finally opened, revealing a rather miffed Bunny who looked like he'd been woken from a particularly good nap, he grinned and brandished the present he was holding. "Hey!"

Barnaby brought his perfectly manicured hand up to the bridge of his nose and pinched tightly. "What are you doing here? It's almost ten."

Wow, he actually had been napping. That was actually kind of cute. "Well, for the record, it's eleven thirty, but hey, whatever." Barnaby scowled and almost closed the door on him, but he stuck his foot in the way. "I brought cake?"

"...You're not going to go away, are you?" Bunny grumped.

"No." He replied cheerfully. "I brought booze, too."

Bunny was grumbling something unintelligible, but walked away from his door, leaving it open. Well, that was probably as good an invitation in as he was going to get. Good thing he wasn't picky. Tiger followed him earnestly, shutting the front door with his foot. He happily waltzed further into his partners apartment-

-And almost dropped everything he was holding.

"Jesus, Bunny! Do you have some kind of aversion to furniture or something?"

The blonde turned around. "What kind of question is that?" he snapped, before wandering furthur into his house in the dark and coming back with a plate and a knife.

He set them down on the table in front of the only other piece of furniture in the entire place, a expensive looking red leather couch. "Oh, I also have a present for you." the blonde raised an eyebrow, and looked like he was going to object, but Kotetsu interrupted. "No, you don't get to throw it away, it's not just from me, it's from everyone." he still looked skeptical, and Kotetsu sighed. "They'll lynch me. Here."

Bunny made some kind of half-choked "eurgh" noise as the violently pink bunny hit him in the face, and promptly looked absolutely murderous.

"Hey, don't look at me like that, man. It was Nathan's idea." Kotetsu laughed, and dodged the plush that was promptly thrown right back at him. It landed somewhere on the floor behind him. "Anyway, come here and have a piece of this cake, will you? I had to stand in line for an hour to get it for you."

Sighing, the blonde frowned (although somewhat half-heartedly, Kotetsu was pleased to note) and bit out "If there is absolutely anything else involving bunnies in this godforsaken plan of yours, I'm kicking you out." before he sat down. The cake was placed on the table carefully, and he raised an eyebrow. "It's small."

Kotetsu had the good grace to flush. "Well, it's not like there's fifty of us here. Besides, unlike you, I have other people I have to support, so my cake budget isn't exactly massive."

"Other people?" Barnaby sounded...genuinely curious.

"I send money to my mother, older brother, and nine year old kid regularly. My mom's retired, so they need all the help they can get." Kotetsu was opening a beer already, and Barnaby just kind of looked at him. "...What?"

Barnaby delicately cut himself a small piece of the cake (chocolate with strawberries, he had some taste after all) and slide it neatly onto his plate. "...You really are an old man aren't you?"

Kotetsu spluttered, and nearly dribbled beer down himself in shock. "W-What the hell? That's kind of rude to say to the guy who just came all the way here in the middle of the night to bring you cake, Bunny."

That earned him a scowl. "Barnaby." He corrected automatically, before relaxing a little. He picked at a bit of fruit. "You have a child, old man? Just how old are you?"

He grumbled, a little childishly, and sipped his drink. "36." at his partners subsequent choke on the cake, he looked a little offended. "How old are you, then, that that's so old?"

"I'm only 24."

"...That's only twelve years."

Barnaby raised an eyebrow, but decided against saying anything. He took another bite of the cake and motioned to the other's left hand. "And what about your wife?" Kotetsu winced, and put down his drink, placing his elbows on his knees.

"I guess she'd be sneaking up on thirty-eight, now. Her birthday would be a couple months from now."

"She's older than you?" Barnaby was prodding, which was interesting and definitely welcome, even if he didn't appreciate this particular subject being picked at. It wasn't really like him to not pick up on subtle grammar, but he supposed it was getting late.

Kotetsu looked at him, careful to keep his expression unreadable, and picked up his drink again. "She was, Bunny. I buried her five years ago."

The blonde flinched, and looked away. "...I'm sorry."

"No, it's not a big deal." He paused, drinking deeply before putting the empty can down. Kotetsu stood, stretched and said, "Well, anyway, I have to go home. It's getting kind of late, and I want to catch at least a little sleep before tomorrow." He walked back tot he door, stepping back into his shoes, and calling "Happy Birthday, Bunny." before leaving, shutting the door gently behind him.

Barnaby stayed behind, staring at the door.


	5. Chapter 4

"Okay! Mr. Brooks, if you will please come right this way..."

Barnaby somewhat reluctantly followed the nth person that had whisked him away to get his photo taken, and Kotetsu was left feeling officially grumpy, and decidedly put out.

It wasn't the first shoot today, oh no. It was probably the 5th. Barnaby maybe got about a fifteen minute break between all of the nonsense that the sponsors were putting him through before yet another person would come in, requesting that he come for his next interview, or some other such nonsense. And Kotetsu? Absolutely nothing. Not one thing.

He was bored out of his mind.

Groaning unhappily, he removed his hat from his eyes. At least the couches were comfy-he didn't know if he could handle being ridiculously sore on top of everything else. Though, of course, Kotetsu later would swear up and down that no matter how bored he thought that he was at this particular moment in time, Barnaby was definitely faring much worse. Having your picture taken for what was bordering on two and a half hours now was now exactly the ideal way to spend an evening. He could hear the snapping of the cameras and the mindless blithering of the cameraman in the other room, and wasn't jealous. Not even for a second.

He'd tried taking a nap earlier, though that proved to be unsuccessful. Morning coffee and loud media people tended to thwart sleep rather enthusiastically.

A distraction from the mindless void provided itself in the form of Bunny's phone vibrating quietly on the table and playing a short tune. Kotetsu's face broke out into a wild, mischievous grin.

About twenty minutes later, he was still giggling quietly to himself, pausing every once in a while to make an utterly stupid face on his partner's cellphone, and then quickly bursting back into snickers. Striking a particularly ridiculous pose, his best yet, he managed to set it as Bunny's background before finally having to just quit and cover his mouth with his hand to keep from guffawing out loud and disturbing the photoshoot. Sometime during, his trademark hat had fallen off, and his stomach was starting to hurt.

Footsteps echoed from around the corner, and he quickly put the phone down back on the table, still not quite able to suppress his chuckling.

"What's so funny, old man? Have you finally gone senile?"

"Ah, Bunny!" Kotetsu's grin just got wider, and he scrambled to pick up the paper to provide an excuse for his pretty much non-stop laugher for the past half hour. "B-Boy, these comics sure are funny today, aren't they, ahahaha."

Bunny just kind of gave him a tired look that said that he didn't buy that excuse at all, before looking down at the front of what Kotetsu was reading with mild surprise. "These three...they were my first arrest."

What? Kotetsu quickly spun the newspaper around to get a look at what his partner was talking about. He blinked at the mug shots of three criminals, only barely recognizing them after a few minutes of deliberation. "Oh yeah. I'm kind of surprised that you recognized them." he said off-handedly.

His partner made some snarky comment about his old age and bad memory, but he pretty much ignored it. Bunny looked pretty disinterested after his initial remark, and had already turned around to the coffee machine beside the couch to grab a drink before his next shoot, so it wasn't really worth getting into a huff about. The thought that the arrest had been actually a little while ago briefly crossed Kotetsu's mind, and he took another look at the print. Why would the newspapers be talking about them again-

"Whoa." Bunny looked back over at him. "It says here that they were murdered last night. Aparently someone broke into the prison where they were being kept and set them on fire. That's pretty sick."

He turned back to his coffee. "Oh. Is that so?"

Kotetsu blinked owlishly before glaring. "What do you mean, "is that so"?" the newpaper was placed back on the table, and Kotetsu stood. "They're dead!"

"So? They're also criminals, old man." Bunny glared right back at him, idly stirring the cup in his hands.

"So?" Now, this was somewhat appalling. Even when he was younger, he didn't think that way. "They were still killed! Burnt alive, even! Don't you think that's even the least bit upsetting?" at Bunny's blank stare, he frowned further, starting to get pretty angry. "Don't human lives mean anything to you?"

The door opened to both of them looking like they were ready to kill the other, Lloyds thankfully averting catastrophe by dragging Tiger away and babbling something about endurance and fire. Kotetsu was not amused.  
__________

Even inside his suit, the heat from the fire was unbearable. Kotetsu grimaced, sweating hard, and grit his teeth against the onslaught of flames. He felt like screaming, or maybe crying.

"Okay!" there was a blare from the loudspeaker that the scientists had to use over the din. "Turn up the heat, please."

Crying was probably a bit higher on that list of things he felt like doing, now.

He heard Nathan say something about sadists before his signature yell, somehow, above the crackle of the fire around him and the thumping of his own heart. Even knowing that he was in no danger, when everything around you is starting to melt from the intense heat, it was pretty hard to not feel some kind of thrill. Besides, it was ridiculously hot, even with the protective metal, though he had to admit, Dr. Saito had done and excellent job on his new suit.

But Christ, he didn't know if he could take much more than this, enhanced suit or no. He felt like he was (or should be) evaporating, or melting, or something, and it was driving him a little crazy.

He could hear a steady drip behind him-ah, the banisters on the second floor were starting to melt. Surely that was kind of a bad sign?

"Alright, that's enough for now!" everything stopped in an instant, and the scientist lowered the mike as Kotetsu sighed with relief. "At this rate, the facility wont last for much longer, so we'll have to leave it at that for today."

Kotetsu quickly flipped up his faceplate as gasped for air that wasn't partially artificial. "Water...!" He croaked before finding his voice again. "Shit, I really need water!" One of the assistants helpfully pointed towards a table with a jug of the stuff, and a few minutes later, he'd practically drank the whole thing.

"Huurghh...was that really necessary, Fire Emblem?" He carefully used his Hero alias; there was people here who didn't know him personally, so it was just for good measure, really.

The dark skinned man made a show of flicking non-existent hair over his shoulder. "Really, sweetie, everything is necessary when you're being accused of murder."

"Speaking of which, I don't think we have enough data." the assistant running the computer sighed. "You'll have to come back tomorrow. I'm sorry about the inconvenience."

Yeah, he definitely felt like crying.

"He's facing suspension from the show, Tiger." Agnes reminded him for what had to have been the eighth time. "Show a little compassion here."

He looked a little indignant. "I know that! But it's a little uncomfortable to be set on fire over and over again for an hour, you know?"

"That's not important."

Kotetsu had changed quickly from his Hero suit into normal clothes, lest Nathan's wayward hands find something he'd rather they didn't. Walking out into the open space just outside the testing room, he looked around for his flamboyant friend...

"Sweetie, I always forget how delicious your bum looks when you're wearing dress pants."

...Who he was quick to find, though it was really more appropriate to say that Nathan found him. Or, rather, his ass. With his hands.

"N-Nathan!" Kotetsu kept his scandalized yelp to a quiet volume, thankfully. He pushed the other man's hands off of his derriere. "Don't sneak up on me like that! More importantly-"

A scream echoed throughout the yard, interrupting Kotetsu's defence of his behind. The two Heroes exchanged more serious looks before running to the door to the outer courtyard, where the noise had come from.

"Someone, please! He's-"

Kotetsu was already in action, Nathan right behind him. Sprinting around the barbed fence, the courtyard was filled with prison mates, but it was easy to find what he was looking for.

A man engulfed in blue flames was pretty obvious to spot out in a crowd, after all.

"Shit!"

The man he was trying to put out with his vest has stopped screaming, Kotetsu suddenly realized. Shit, shit shit, shit! I can't let this guy...

Frantically beating down on the prisoner with the in a last ditch effort, Tiger squeezed his eyes shut and could only pray. Not too long afterwards, the flames finally went out, and the man collapsed to the ground, Kotetsu following suit, grabbing the man by his charred shoulders.

"Oi! Hang in there! Don't you dare die on me." When the man gave no response, Kotetsu shook him harder. "OI!"

A hand was brought to his shoulder, and he shook at the contact. "There's nothing you can do, honey." he heard Nathan's falsetto. "I'm sorry.

He'd accepted Nathan's offer of a ride home that night, but when he asked to be let out a block earlier than his house so he could have some time to think about what had happened today, he surely hadn't been expecting this.

'This' being bullet holes in his already pretty tarnished vest, and a giant mecha shark-wannabe chasing after him like he'd killed his mother.

Which, in all truth, was seriously up for debate at this point, given the tenacity with which the thing was fucking hunting him down. "Shit!" he breathed, a fresh round of bullets effectively destroying part of the wall he was hiding behind.

Kotetsu was running out of places to hide, and challenging it head on without some sort of backup was definitely a really, exceptionally stupid idea. Besides, he'd already made a show of that earlier.

'Damnit, Bunny. If it would have helped you actually believe me and come and help this poor old man, I never would have taken any stupid photos on your phone.' he willed silently. Shit, why wasn't Saito answering his phone...

Hey, wait, wasn't that Nathan's car?

"Wait!" he yelled at the car, praying to anything that would listen that it was who he thought it was. "Stop, stop, stop!"

He didn't even care if he looked absolutely ridiculous at this point. Even if it was some stranger, being in a car was better than running from it on foot. But, as luck would have it, it was his number one favorite gay best friend.

"Wow, are you actually reconsidering my offer?" Nathan purred, but really, they didn't have the time for Kotetsu to let him down gently, even in this kind of situation.

Kotetsu wheezed helplessly, completely out of breath. "No, Jesus Christ. Look over there!" He did, and the brunette was treated to the manliest girly shriek that he'd ever head in his entire life. "I know, right! Help me out here!"

"What the hell is that?" the black man demanded, getting out of his car. The thing shot at both of them, forcing them to run, but not very far.

"I have no idea." But Kotetsu was beaming anyway as they crouched by the front of the car. "Seriously, Nathan, you're like, my favorite person ever right now. I'll buy you lunch tomorrow, if you just, I dunno, kill it with your flames or something."

Nathan frowned and flipped his non-existent hair again, bullets raining down on his car and pretty much destroying it. "As much as I love the prospect of me and you on a lunch date together, why don't you just use your own powers?"

"Eh? But, well, what if I need to use them later? There's no sense in wasting them right now?" Kotetsu was still grinning, but it was a little strained now. The hood of the car popped by itself, probably due to all of the damage, and was promptly treated to a shower of bullets. "Besides, I need to use my powers to save people."

A pout was present on Nathan's face at that. "Well, you could be saving me, you know." before he finally realized what the hell the thing was managing to do to his car while they were having a pleasant conversation thanks to a light fireball that went up over the hood of the car. "What the hell do you think you're doin', you asshole?" he roared, voice dropping into a deep, rough, and utterly terrifying baritone.

"Well, there's no sense in beating around the bush any more. Let's just kill this thing and be done with it."

Kotetsu moved to stand, but a perfectly manicured hand tugged him down again by the lapels of his coat, which was kind of ruined now, and was doing absolutely nothing to protect him against the cold. He shivered. At least it was kind of warm when he was running away from that thing.

"Wait, no, we can't just-"

The pinging and clanging of bullets against the utterly demolished car finally stopped for a moment's reprieve, and the two Heroes blinked in unison before turning their heads around the sides of the car. "Is it out of bullets?" Nathan mumbled.

This time, Kotetsu was allowed to stand and walk cautiously over to the suit of armour. He didn't get closer than about a meter and a half away from the thing before a high pitched humming started, and he stopped dead in his tracks. "Uh, Nathan? I don't think this is very-"

A huge blue flame and his own surprised yell cut him off. It licked along his shoulder, burning away the already tattered fabric and singing the skin in a matter of less than a second, and it managed to get a good throb going before he turned and practically flew back to where Nathan was. "Ugh, shit."

"Well, I guess I have no choice." The black man smiled, and pulled a pose, sticking out his pinky finger delicately and glowing an unnatural blue before he flung a blast of orange at the mech's blue flames."Fire~"

And was promptly horrified as the blue engulfed his attack and continued it's trajectory. "N-No way..."

"Look out!"

Kotetsu tackled his friend out of the way, just as the blue flames smashed into the car, causing it to go up in flames almost immediately. Kotetsu groaned, glowing a faint blue. "Distract it! I'll figure out something."

"Are you insane?" a rather feminine cry of outrage.

"Just do it!"

Leaping into action before the flamboyant man could argue with him any further, he rolled nimbly away from the oncoming blast of blue fire. Nathan, taking the hint, diverted the machine's attention away from Kotetsu, and a second was pretty much all he had before the machine overpowered him once more.

Kotetsu jumped, just enough to slam his weight down on the mechanical arm that was projecting the flames, effectively ruining the mechanism. With a roar, he leaped onto the top of the monstrosity and-

'CH-CHUNK.'

-Ripped off the mecha's faceplate, revealing the man inside, who raged, giving a final jerk of the controls that sent Kotetsu flying, and disappeared from sight after a blinding flash of blue light.

He landed, in a rather undignified fashion, right on his ass. It was only then that he heard the familiar whir of his motorcycle from the distance, accompanied by the noise of a rather large truck, and that meant that either his bike had managed to figure out how to navigate on it's own, or Bunny was hear to steal his kill.

Goddamn it. Well, at least he was too late.

Kotetsu lounged, rather uncomfortably, on the back of one of the chairs inside the rather massive truck. Seriously, how did this thing manage to fit five people, a living room, two bikes, two hero suits, as well as the facilities to store them and the mechanics to help Tiger and Bunny put them on, and a whole hell of a lot else that Kotetsu was sure existed, but just hadn't found out about yet.

I mean, seriously. At this rate, there was probably an entire cooler full of booze and a small bakery somewhere in here.

"So, what you're telling me is that you think that you've seen this guy before, but you can't remember where?" Barnaby was pinching the bridge of his nose again. He was going to give himself a nosebleed or something if he kept that up, the idiot.

Kotetsu frowned, and cradled his head in his hands, as if it was going to help him remember somehow. "I know I've seen this guy somewhere before, Bunny. But..."

"Really, honey. You should at least try a little harder than that, don't you think? It's pretty pitiful when you give me that face" Nathan chided from his position on the opposite couch. Christ, it was freezing in here. His friend's expression changed slightly as he got a better look at him. "...Oh dear, honey, you're not looking so good. Did you hurt youself?"

Kotetsu grit his teeth, moving the tattered sleeve of his jacket gently so it covered his burn. "No. Besides that, weren't you the one who said just a little while ago that you'd keep my bed warm for the night?"

His partner groaned, shaking his head as Nathan prattled off denials and propositions in the same breath. "Ugh, this is hopeless. You really do have a terrible memory." He turned towards the door, still shaking his head, Nathan moving to join him. "I'm wasting my time here."

Seriously tempted to mock him rather childishly (again), Kotetsu frowned and crossed his arms, only vaguely catching the faint whisper that was Saito mumbling in front of him, sitting on the couch that he was leaning on. "Ah, sorry, what?"

"You tried calling me earlier, didn't you?" Saito looked guilty.

Kotetsu looked as if he'd just remembered that he had every right to be pretty mad at the good Doctor, and turned partially around to get a better look at him. "Yeah, that's right? Where the hell were you! I could have died, you know."

"Well you see, I almost died as well." Saito whispered. Even Barnaby turned around at Kotetsu's shocked exclaimation that followed that. "Do you have any idea how hard it is for a claustrophobic man to get stuck in the elevator?"

He sighed and flopped back down again. "Man, you had me worked up for a second, there." He grumbled. "Shouldn't that building have proper maintenance done on it's elevators, anyway?" Wait. Elevator maintenance... Kototesu paused, bringing his hand to his chin and stroking his bead before perking up and snapping his fingers. "T-That's who it was!"

Barnaby groaned, and turned around from his position at the doorway. "What are you talking about, old man?"

"It was that elavator maintenance guy!" When Barnaby gave him a completely blank stare, he elaborated. "You know, the one in that bombing incident."

Barnaby's eyebrows rose in recognition, before he turned towards Kotetsu. "You don't suppose..."

"That's exactly what I suppose, Bunny."

He could hear his partners rage and the gritting of his teeth from here, and Kotetsu smiled. "It's Barnaby." the blonde growled out, before stalking in the direction of their bikes.


	6. Chapter 5

Kotetsu wasn't really comfortable, considering Nathan was squished up against his side and noticeably draping his legs casually over both him and Barnaby on a bike meant for two people at best. Actually, comfort didn't really seem to be much of an option right now, considering they were flying down the highway and Nathan had to practically cling to him in order to actually stay on the bike and avoid some nasty road rash, and having a blatantly gay guy clinging to you for whatever reason was never not extremely awkward. Speaking of which, he could feel said man's gaze on his injured shoulder, and shifted awkwardly. "You really did hurt yourself, didn't you?" before Kotetsu could reply to the man's accusation, Nathan continued, brushing manicured fingernails gently against the shoulder in question and making him hiss. "Sweetie, you can't lie to me, you know. I saw you get hit by that fire." Nathan chastised him quietly, hopefully quietly enough that Bunny couldn't hear.

Kotetsu offered him a reassuring smile, even as he stretched the burn a little far when he turned to meet the other hero's gaze and it formed into a bit of a grimace. "Don't worry about it, Nathan. It's pretty minor, and I'll fix it up when I get home." Still, if the look on his face was anything to go by, his friend was not reassured. "Look, if it's anything I can't handle, I'll call you up later, Okay?"

"I'd rather you go to a hospital if it's 'something you can't handle', honey, though I appreciate the trust." Nathan laughed and he saw Bunny perk up in interest. Finally, he'd managed to catch on that they were talking.

"What are you two talking about?"

"I was-"

Kotetsu quickly cut him off. "I was explaining what going on. We're going to go and find Agnes, right?" Nathan looked at him like he had been growing a second head, but Kotetsu quickly jerked a hand over his throat and he got the message.

Bunny, on the other hand, didn't look really convinced, but a side view was never to be relied on for expressions. "Yeah, since thanks to that guy, she could be in danger."

"What's that now?" Nathan spun around to frown indignantly at Kotetsu, who gave a nervous laugh. "You never mentioned that Ms. Joubert was in danger, Tiger."

"I was just getting to that." Tiger grinned wildly. His partner harrumphed and turned his attention back to the road, content to leave the two idiots to their babble. "Do you remember that bomb scare that we had a little while ago? Yeah, that was the guy." Nathan brought his hand up to his mouth in shock. "We think he'd probably going to try and get rid of everyone who saw his face at the scene."

"And that includes Mrs. Joubert?"

Tiger grimaced again. "Unfortunately."  
_____________

All he could do was try and not fall over laughing at his partner, leaping about like his namesake and kicking the thing apart within a matter or minutes. "You always get to show off, Bunny." Kotetsu mumbled and grinned sheepishly, helping Agnes stand. He hoped she wasn't too injured-that mech had given her car a pretty good totaling.

Fire Emblem took her other arm. "How are you doing, honey? Are you injured?"

"Nothing too serious." She replied icily, clearly still pissed off about her car. Kotetsu could kind of understand: that thing looked really expensive, but really you'd think she'd be a bit more upset about the attempt on her life.

As Bunny finally wrenched the man from the mech, Tiger walked over beside him, letting Nathan handle the director. He crouched down beside the prone man, shaking his head, "What the hell were you thinking, buddy? You must have known we were Heroes, we're on TV all the time-"

"-Ouroboros..."

Kotetsu's eyes widened inside his helm hopelessly, a tirade of cursing running through his head, and looked down on instinct. How did he...with his suit on it was impossible for Bunny to see-!

The blonde, however, negated Kotetsu's wild thinking by pushing him out of the way and picking up the prone man. He could see it now, the tattoo on the back of the guy's neck, oh shit. Shakily letting out a breath of half relief half terror, he allowed himself to be pushed aside.

"What is Ouroboros? A crime ring?" he saw Barnaby's grip on the man's throat get tighter, and heard the anxiousness in his voice. Shit, that wasn't going to end well. "Where is that man with the symbol of Ouroboros on the back of his hand? Answer me!" The man laughed, and looked at Kotetsu, dead in the face(plate), and looked like he wanted to say something, but didn't. 'Fuck, does he know who I am?"

Bunny tossed him further into the parkade with a flick of his hand, the man landing heavily on the ground, and Tiger ran up to him, grabbing his shoulders and stopping him from advancing. "Hey, Bunny, what are you-"

"Please move." He made a move to navigate around him, but Kotetsu held his arms stedfast.

"Calm down!"

Kotetsu's arms were thrown away from his partner. "Don't interfere!"

"Honestly, you two, isn't there better things that you could be doing right now-"

The minute of distraction was all the time that the 'maintenance guy' needed. He'd crept away, grabbing Agnes by the hair, and her scream directed the attention of the fighting heroes to more pressing matters. The man had a gun pressed to the director's temple, and Kotetsu was quick to turn and-

The man cocked the gun and grinned like a madman. "Don't fucking move. Take off your masks and put your hands in the air." When they did nothing, he pressed the gun harder into her skull as a warning. "I'll blow her fucking head off. Do it, now!"

'Oh, fuck.'

Nathan and Barnaby grudgingly rose their masks, but Kotetsu was paralyzed. What would happen if he recognized him? What was Bunny's problem? What had Ouroboros done to him? Whatever it was, it had to be serious; it wasn't everyday that blondie went batshit like this. Was he completely fucked if the man outed him to his partner?

His head was spinning and starting to hurt from all the questions and by the time he'd noticed that both his partner and Nathan were looking at him, he felt sick. "Tiger..."

For now, he could only pray. Kotetsu lifted his mask, grateful for the substitute one that he worse underneath as protection just in case; but he didn't know if that was going to help him any, if the man had already figured out who he was-

"The other mask too, idiot!" the man roared, spittle flying everywhere. Kotetsu grudgingly lowered his secondary mask, so his face was completely bare. Well, he was fucked now, there was no hope. He might as well have been wearing a fur coat hand have a tattoo on his face like a harlequin and spades decorating his clothing like an idiot and that stupid fucking piercing, or, even better, strip naked and reveal that damned tattoo to the world-

The man's eyes widened, and Kotetsu could have cried. "Shit, you really are Ka-"

A blast of green-blue fire cut him off (the same as earlier!), hitting the gun and flinging it away. Kotetsu could have cried again for an entirely different reason. Someone, up there was watching out for him.

And, as it turned out, that someone up there was currently watching him, too. "Is that a person, up there?" He followed Nathan's eyes, and ran to the window space of the parkade. Surely enough, there was a vague silhouette, illuminated by the pale red glow of the moon behind it, as well as the iridescent and eerie blue flames that surrounded it's face.

A second blast shook the parkade, lighting up the entire surrounding area as the man who had taken Agnes hostage was set ablaze, shaking and screaming, and Kotetsu could do nothing about it, transfixed by the crawling, unnatural flame. The body hit the ground, and the spell was broken; Kotetsu looking back up a the place where the silhouette had been and seeing nothing but the moon.


	7. Chapter 6

Kotetsu sat alone in his apartment, lounging on his bed in a pair of sleep pants and fresh gauze over his shoulder, mulling over the information that Bunny and Nathan had given him. Should he be careful, if what Nathan was speculating was true. Suppose that NEXT with the blue flames was going after members of Ouroboros just for kicks—was he in trouble? He didn't know if he could take on that NEXT, if they surprised him. Those flames...they couldn't be put out until the person died, which made them seriously effective. If that guy got a hold of him for any reason, there was no doubt that he would die.

He shuddered. That wasn't an option. Bunny needed him, and if he died...Sure, he hadn't been a member of that organization for twenty years or so, but that wasn't to say he didn't know anything at all. How Bunny reacted was what was getting to him. He'd looked like he was about to burst into tears when he'd admitted that he didn't know anything about Ouroboros. If he wouldn't be completely condemned for his tattoo, if the blonde would only listen to him about it, he could share some pretty valuable information with him...

Fuck. Ouroboros had killed Bunny's parents twenty years ago, which meant that he was probably viable in the blonde's head for the position of his parent's murderer. He groaned, disheartened, putting his hands to his face. There was no hope of earning to blonde's trust now. It was pointless.

No, that was selfish. Kotetsu sat up, and moved to get off the bed. It wouldn't do any good to heap on the self-pity because of Bunny's situation. His partner wasn't ammunition for the pity party he was apparently throwing himself. 

He groaned again, trying to clear his head a bit and wandered down to the kitchen, putting a kettle on to boil. Selfish or not, to assume that Bunny would trust him, even knowing that he had been a member of the organization that had killed his family when he was a child, and still had the tattoo, to boot...oh. He'd mentioned something about a man with the symbol on the back of his hand when Agnes was taken hostage. Had that been his parents killer?

There was nothing he could do but turn over questions in head head again and again, and it was giving him a headache. Why now, after twenty years, did this have to turn up?

Blaming Bunny wasn't going to get him anywhere either, and he perished the flickered thought.

Reentering his bedroom with a cup of hot tea and a painkiller in his hand, he looked absently at the makeup sitting innocently on the counter top in the on-suite bathroom. He was running a little low, perhaps tomorrow he should buy more. Sighing, he popped the pills into his mouth and lay down.

All of this mindless turning was getting him nowhere. He'd be able to think better in the morning if he managed to get some sleep. Maybe he could even talk with Bunny...

He snorted and turned on his side. Yeah, right.

It was three in the morning, two days later, after he'd been rudely awakened by a call summoning Barnaby and himself. He'd run, grabbing both his and Barnaby's bikes (that were still attached to one another, and upon realizing his mistake, he groaned. What a stupid thing to forget) and gently inserting his key into Barnaby's side of the bike and rubbing the back of his neck through the suit.

Jesus, didn't this feel awkward. Usually he was the one riding shotgun, not driving. It was just lucky that he was able to use his key on Barnaby's bike, otherwise he would have had to either steal his partner's keys, which he would no doubt end up dying for, or figure out how to detach the bikes individually.

Where they were supposed to meet up wasn't too far from the Apollon Media building, though, which was good for Barnaby. His partner had maybe ten minutes to wake up before they had to actually move onto the scene.

"A crime ring, huh?" Kotetsu hadn't bothered to pull down his faceplate just yet. It was easier to breathe this way, and he didn't really need too until he was in some kind of immediate danger, really. "I wonder if it's that one." He crossed his arms idly and tapped his fingers a bit.

He heard hurried metal footsteps running across the road, and looked over. "Sorry to keep you waiting." Bunny stated offhandedly, clicking up his faceplate so they could look at each other.

Koetesu promptly looked away, not really ready to face his partner just yet. "Ah, no, it's not a big deal." he cleared his throat. "Anyway, the police found the hideout of a crime syndicate that they were keeping tabs on, and they want us to bust in there."

"A crime syndicate..." Kotetsu was promptly greeting with a shocked look as Barnaby went to put in his keys, and found a pair already there. "What the..."

"They're mine, Bunny, stop looking at me like that." Kotetsu grinned and reached over to take them out. "I had to get the bike out here somehow, you know, while you were still in lala land." Barnaby replaced them with his own, but didn't start it up yet, so Kotetsu took the opportunity to warn him about Agnes' crazy plan. "It's not pre-recorded, this time. Be careful."

"I know."

They raced off, though it didn't take long for them to arrive at the place that they were told to be on standby, and Bunny practically punched him in the face when he told him so. "Standby? What do you mean, standby!?"

Thankfully, Agnes interrupted his imminent beating over the comm line with her trademark opening: "Bonjour, Heroes." Tiger groaned. Here we go, more of the crazy director's plotting and random changes to get ratings up. " Today, you'll be targeting a Church, where the Police have located the hideout of a major crime ring that they've been keeping tabs on. There's five criminals inside the church for sure, and it's a high possibility that they're heavily armed. There may be more inside, as well as NEXTs, so please be careful. We'll be keeping all communication lines between you open because we're live, but don't mistake me." he frowned, looking over at Barnaby, who said nothing. "The police have finally tracked these guys down, and are trusting us to help them capture the bad guys. Hero TV's reputation is at stake. Though, to put it another way," even through the comm, she sounded positively mischievous, "this is a great opportunity to get points. Au revior, Heroes, and good luck."

The communication cut, and he turned to his partner, gently clicking his face mask down. "If those criminals inside the Church are Ouroboros," Christ, he hoped not. One was bad enough of a scare. "that guy with the blue flame might show up."

"Why would he?"

Had he really not thought of it? Kotetsu made a mental note to buy Nathan lunch the next time they were out together. "That NEXT...there's a high possibility that he could be targeting members of Ouroboros." He heard Barnaby's quiet, shocked exhalation even through the mask. "Well, we haven't confirmed it yet, but he's only targeted criminals so far, and we know for sure that one of them was a member." 'And almost outed me as one, too. "It's impossible to tell right now, but..."

"I'm surprised, old man." Argh, that nickname was back already? Damn it. "I never would have expected you to think that far ahead."

He'd wanted to out Nathan as the one who had come up with it, but hearing Bunny praise him was worth not telling him. Silence fell over them before he said, a little awkwardly, "Listen, I sympathize with you, but there's no reason for you to rush in there like your ass is on fire." A wry grin. "We have to act at least a little bit professional, this time."

Bunny looked over at him, though he couldn't really tell what his expression was, thanks to the mask. "I know that, and your sympathy isn't needed. After all, I'm professional all the time." If he didn't know better, he would have sworn that there was a grin on Bunny's face. Well, at least he was smiling inside, then.

"Ah, as usual, you're not cute at all." He paused a bit, knowing that his partner was no doubt mad, hesitating, before deciding to tell him that he might become a target, that he might die too, just like the other criminals, burnt alive, oh God-"Listen, Bunny, if that NEXT shows up..." The comm line crackled again, interrupting him, and it was Agnes' voice telling them all that it was time-

And then the Church burst into blue green flames.

This guy was seriously turning out to be a major pain in the ass. He could hear Bunny's frustrated cussing through the communications line, as he was sure that everyone else could, and only truly started not following his own advice of ignoring Lunatic when his partner gave a particularly loud yell and the sound of shattering stone could be heard even by the line's terrible pick up, and he squeezed his eyes shut and prayed. 'Shit, Bunny, please be Okay...'

He had been seeing too many people die lately. It was bad for his mental health. The man who he was currently trying to give CPR wasn't breathing still, and if he thumped his chest any harder, he really wasn't going to wake up. Antonio shook his head gently at him

Someone groaned to his left, and he moved to go help them, but he was stopped by an armored hand. "Go help Barnaby, Tiger."

"But-"

"From the sounds of it, he needs your help more than I do. I'll collect the information this guy has here, before sending him in. Don't worry" Antonio was grinning at him he was sure about that. "I'll make sure that you get the points for it. You're lower in the ranks than I am, you know."

He grumbled, but it would seem that he had no choice, really. "Thanks, A-Bison." he swore in his head. This was live TV, after all.

Ahh, here we go. He could faintly hear Barnaby's voice, as well as the dark lilt of that crazy NEXT, though of course, the latter was easily heard, thanks to the fact that he was projecting parts of their less than pleasant conversation over the communication line, somehow. How the hell had this guy managed to hack into their systems, anyway? But, well, that was pretty moot, as he pointed his crossbow, laden with blue fire, at Bunny. He grit his teeth and raised his arm, loading up a shot of his own.

Yeah, not happening, pal.


	8. Chapter 7

Well, if nothing else, two things were certain: Lunatic certainly lived up to his name, and Kotetsu wasn't very happy with him.

Being stuck in the office with only a grumpy Bunny and paperwork for company was never fun, really. And if Lunatic killing over thirteen people since his "debut" the other night was to blame, then Tiger was happy to have a scapegoat. Blaming someone else for your misfortunes always seemed to be so much more satisfying, anyway.

Paperwork was so boring, honestly. It automatically made any day extremely shitty.

He sighed and rolled back in his chair, brushing dark hair from his eyes. He hadn't seen this much death in this short of a time period since back then, when he was the one doing the actual killing. It was bad for his blood pressure.

A quiet grunt of frustration from his left diverted his attention to his partner, who wasn't doing so great. He looked like he hadn't had a decent sleep for at least a week, if not more. Koetesu sighed, and then dramatically changed his expression to a grin as he thought of an absolutely brilliant idea: "Bunny, do you want coffee? I'm too tired to focus on this," he gestured at his computer screen halfheartedly, "and I'm going to go and get one anyway."

His partner looked at him, catching on to his wonderful plan instantly. "You are not bailing on me and leaving me to do all of this paperwork, old man."

"Hey, hey, hey. I'm offering to buy you a coffee, now." Bunny looked like he wanted to protest more, but Kotetsu was already on his feet and halfway out the door. "Double double, right? I'll be back in five."

Quickly shutting the door, Kotetesu grinned as he heard the muffled enraged yell that accompanied the dull thunk of something Bunny threw at him hitting the door. He didn't miss the small smile sent his way just before the door shut, though, and grinned harder at the thought.  
___________

Looking at a double of yourself was just outright strange.

Kotetsu blinked, somewhat awed by Ivan's actual power. He'd always thought it was like, invisibility, or something. How did that kid manage to get into the background so easily? It all made sense now.

The other Kotetsu was looking pretty sheepish, and scuffed his foot against the ground. This was so cool. "I can turn into objects and other stuff too." Nix what he said earlier—looking at a living trash can was much, much weirder. Thankfully, Ivan turned back into Ivan before Kotetsu could have a stroke thanks to all of the mind-boggling possibilities, and shuffled about again, tucking his hands into his pockets. "It's pretty useless, really, since I can't copy anyone's powers, just their appearance."

"Are you kidding me?" Koetetsu balked. "That's amazing! I had no idea you could do something that cool, Origami." He put one hand on the shocked teen's shoulder, causing him to jolt slightly and Kotetsu smiled happily.

"I-I don't really think so, but thank you anyway." Ivan looked away and played with his sash a bit, and though he played it off like a typical teenager, Kotetsu could tell that he was happy to have been praised. Really, kids these days.

...Now he actually was starting to sound like an old man. Damnit, Bunny. He coughed half-awkwardly. "Well, anyway. We should probably get going. There's gotta be more for us to do around here, huh?"

Ivan gave him a shaky smile, and allowed himself to be lead away by Kotetsu's gentle hand.  
____________

So, Ivan's best friend had killed someone because of him when he was a kid, huh? That was pretty strange, actually, but it did explain a lot of things, like why he was so hesitant and shy, and why his self-esteem was so low. He had had no idea that Ivan had been involved in something so major, but really it didn't actually change much about his perception of the boy. Really, he couldn't talk about awkward childhoods. Yanking the coughing younger hero out of the sinkhole, Kotetsu had to pound him on the back as the kid choked on another mouthful of sand. "You okay?"

"Yeah, or I will be soon, anyway." the blonde mumbled into the arms that were holding him partially out of the ground and giving a few more weak coughs. "Thanks."

Koetesu shook his head, and cradled the blonde a bit, lifting him all the way out and setting him on solid ground. "No, no trouble." Ivan looked at him like he'd grown another head. "We're friends, aren't we?" He asked with a small smile, which Ivan returned, if a bit shakily.

"That aside...Why did you interfere?" Kotetsu blinked at him stupidly. "His life is ruined because of me...Edward is in prison because of me." Ivan wasn't meeting his eyes, and Kotetsu just kneeled beside the sandy ground, not really having anything to say. "I would die if it meant that he could be happy."

Kotetsu looked at his partner, who was standing a ways away, and Bunny cut in with a click of his boots, kneeling on the opposite side from Kotetsu of Ivan. "From what I can gather, Edward is just looking for someone to blame." Ivan jerked, surprised at the voice of the other blonde. "Really, Origami, you shouldn't beat yourself up about it too much."

He could have happily facepalmed. That was...probably not the most intelligent thing to say, because now, Ivan seemed more upset, if the shakes were anything to go by. Damn it, Bunny, he`d been looking for some support, not more things to play damage control with. The young blonde in his arms put his face in his hands, "But I...I..." he was wetly mumbling, an Kotetsu shot his partner kind of an acrid look. "If would have done something...If I had moved...He would have been a much better Hero than me!" he practically yelled, his shoulders shaking in Kotetsu's hold. "I'm to blame...I'm..."

"If you're to blame, then you should be the one to go after him." Ivan looked up at him, eyes puffy and red, and Kotetsu offered a reassuring smile. "We've already seen exactly what he's like now, and he's committed a crime once before, already. Are you going to let him commit more crimes?"

Ivan's eyebrows bunched together, and he looked down again. "But I can't do anything-"

"Are you going to make the same mistake again?" The older man tucked Ivan's head under his chin, looking up at the sky while he gave him a reassuring hug. "Listen to me: If you really think that you're at fault here, then it's your job to make it right. You're a Hero, after all."

Standing slowly, Ivan looked at him for the first time in twenty minutes, and all he could do to not make things considerably worse than they already are was nod and smile as he watched the kid run off.

Though it was pretty short lived: his smile soon turned into a shocked, embarrassed blush. Bunny had slid his hand across his shoulder in an effort to get his attention, and now his back wouldn't stop tingling. "Old man, we should go. That guy is still around somewhere, after all, and Origami isn't really thinking." He stuttered out an excuse and stood quickly, face still flaming. That had been the first time that Bunny had ever touched him casually like that, without the suit.

It was weird.

Really, this Lunatic guy seriously needed a hobby, or something. Kotetsu immediately regretting thinking that, as seeing the mental image of Lunatic in all of his wacky-coloured glory knitting equally wacky-coloured scarves was just too much, and despite the general chaos going on around him, had to let loose a wild grin.

But seriously, now. Edward had only just escaped from prison, and already Lunatic was after his ass. Didn't this guy have a day job, or something?

He wasn't really sure how he and Bunny had ended up facing off with the crazy on the roof, but he wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth. Tiger was just glad that Ivan was safe, and that, as it turned out, Lunatic didn't actually belong to Ouroboros. Thank God, he would have been chopped up and served for breakfast within the week if that little tidbit of information would have gotten out, and then where would Kaede be?

"I lost my lead to Ouroboros thanks to you!"

"That's a shame."

...Best not to think about that, especially since his partner was about to do something extremely reckless. "Bunny don't just-" and, of course, he didn't listen at all.

Lunatic nimbly dodged Bunny's enraged charge, and Bunny barely skidded to a stop in time to not meet his unfortunate end via dropping off a three story building; "I see. So hatred has consumed you." He could have sword he heard some trace of regret in Lunatic's voice, but it was fairly irrelevant.

He also said something about the voice of Thanatos, but really that was pretty much also irrelevant and Kotetsu wasn't listening. From that second that the blue bastard lifted that crossbow, Bunny was the only thing on his mind. Kotetsu didn't think, just acted. Bunny is going to die. I can't let him-He'd never moved this fast in his life, feet pounding against the metal roof, Not a change is he going to get hurt, I'll protect him-!

The flames slammed into him, rending half of his shirt completely to ash, and he didn't even want to think about his already injured shoulder. He stood, staggering a bit, and Lunatic had already raised another blast of blue flames. Grounding himself and jumping again, he squeezed his eyes shut as his fist slammed into Lunatic's mask, and if he hadn't had the hundred power, the force alone would have been enough to break his hand. He wasn't sure that it hadn't anyway.

His side hit the ground first, thankfully; his fist hurt like almighty fuck and half of his upper torso smelled faintly of steak, so that would have made for a poor landing, not like this one was much better. Kotetsu practically bounced off of the pavement when he came crashing down, and gave an involuntary yell because of it. That was definitely going to hurt in the morning. He'd rolled a meter or two before coming to a halt, wincing into the pavement and feeling every tiny rock that was jamming into his bare flesh, and gave a small pained moan when he felt larger stones practically embed themselves into his burnt chest, piercing the thin layer on top and drawing more blood. Thankfully, once he mustered the willpower to look, the brunette was happy to see that those eerie blue flames could be put out, and apparently, falling roughly three stories at speed did the trick. Kotetsu shakily sat up, clutching his shoulder gently and giving another pained groan, and immediately felt Bunny's presence beside him and a hand on him.

He tried not to brush it off; his body was numb and felt half asleep, and the pressure felt strange. "Are you Okay?" he was in a panic, Kotetsu could tell that much. Well, it must have been stressful, he guessed, and gave him a small, pained smile, even as a dribble of blood ran down his chin from the flaming punch to the face that he'd gotten from Lunatic for Christmas.

"I'm fine." though it was obviously a lie.

The adrenaline from being punched in the face in midair and thrown to the ground after being set on fire was starting to wear off, and his body gave a resonant, painful throb. He doubled over, head between his knees and his partner's hand still on his uninjured half, and gave a short, extremely painful chuckle and a weak smile. "I think."

Bunny swore, stood, and turned, ready to continue pointlessly flinging himself at Lunatic, but Kotetsu quickly gripped his hand, startling him into staying put for a second. At the blonde's confused look, he gave a small grin, "I keep telling you, calm down. This isn't going to get you anywhere."

"But-!"

"I have no desire to fight with you Heroes. I am simply giving murderers what they deserve." In between the pounding blood in his ears, he could hear Lunatic's booming voice interrupt whatever Bunny was going to say, but at this point, his consciousness had started to waver a bit and he couldn't really understand most of it, but the end made more sense.

He grunted again, and was half tempted to pinch his own cheek to make him stay more alert. Damn it, body, this was important. "Is that why you kill people? To satisfy..." Kotetsu swooned and almost fell over again, but his grip on Bunny's hand kept his body from meeting the pavement again. "...some sort of personal sense of justice?" he mumbled quietly. It was a little slurred, but it was still understandable. Probably.

Shit, were they still holding hands? Kotetsu quickly let go.

"Then...my sense of justice...is arresting idiots like you. You know what you're doing is wrong." He tried to summon up the strength to stand, but his legs wobbled and he almost pitched over, so he figured that staying down was in his best interests.

Thankfully, it didn't seem to matter. He managed to focus on Lunatic's face as the crack that he'd made in his mask widened and a large part fell, revealing pale skin. The villain's hand shot up to cover it, and said some silly closing, cliche line before hopping away, but the damage had been done. Barnaby moved away, removing Kotetsu's ability to remain upright and his head met the concrete again, this time knocking him unconscious.


	9. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there is a brief mention of sex, watch your step kids

It wasn't a major injury—not as bad as it could have been anyway. Kotetsu had spent the night in the hospital and was discharged the next morning with a fresh roll of gauze, instructions on how to take care of the 2nd degree burn that covered most of his upper torso and a stern talking to. After ten years of Heroing, the hospital staff practically knew him by name. Bunny, when he'd come to pick him up in the morning was kind of surprised when he was up on his feet with a baggy shirt, chatting up one of the nurses that had taken care of him roughly twenty times now.

"How's your shoulder?" his partner asked him as he gingerly sat down in the Lonely Chaser, trying not to hurt himself more.

Kotetsu gave him a wry smile, shuffling the rest of the way into the buggy. "Honestly, I've been better." Bunny shot him a glare at the tease from his position in the driver's seat, and he grinned again, "I've also been worse. Thankfully it's not serious."

That had been a few hours ago now, and Bunny hadn't believed him any more then than he'd been telling the truth, which was to say, not at all. The blonde had snarked at him in a kind of friendly way the rest of the ride home, and had quickly left after leaving him at his flat, refusing the offer to come in for a cup of tea that Kotetsu had offered on mere habit. Alone now, he was sitting in his sparse kitchen at the counter realaxing a bit and just unwinding after a less-than-stressful morning. The severity of his wound wasn't what was bothering him, though it certainly stung when he moved the wrong way, and he had to change the bandages every couple of hours. No, what was really wearing him down was why he was injured in the first place, not that he regretted it.

He'd never be one to think twice about protecting people, especially not people close to him. But Barnaby had only recently come to be in his life, why did his safety matter so much? He'd leapt in and saved Ivan and his buddy before that, sure, but he hadn't taken the shot for them. If he hadn't landed the way he did, he would be in the morgue by now, no doubt. He blinked.

Was he actually willing to risk his life for Bunny? That was a new development that had seriously happened without his permission.

He leaned onto the counter of his kitchen, head in his hands, and idly stirred a cup of tea. He'd been forced to lay off the alcohol for a bit by the hospital staff while he recovered, and was a bit sore about it, but it was far too early in the morning to be drinking anyway, and it wasn't like there was anything that he could use as defense against a registered MD with a mean pinch. He rolled the idea of being good friends with his standoffish partner around in his head a bit as he sipped his drink. Well, it seemed like it had already halfway happened, quite literally. The blonde had progressed from unwilling teammate to someone he considered important enough on a base level to protect at the cost of his own life, though in the end it hadn't amounted to that. If his partner's new status in his own mind without any willing input from Kotetsu himself could happen, then maybe it could work out.

Snorting, he put away his now empty cup. Yeah, right.  
_________

The Hero's gym was full today, a rare sight on a Monday morning, and Kotetsu haggardly walked in with a cup of coffee for himself for while he relaxed and tried to wake up a bit before any actual work could get done. The hospital had told him not to put stress on his shoulder for a while, and while that was impossible while he was performing his Hero duties, in his off time it was pretty much mandatory, lest he want another good scolding for not taking care of himself. That didn't mean that he wasn't allowed at the gym, but any strenuous exercise for now was a huge no-no.

"Good morning, Mr. Wild Tiger!" Keith called cheerfully from his position on a nearby bench, where he was patting down his forehead with a towel, no doubt just finishing up an extreme routine. "I see that you are recovered from last week's injuries!"

Kotetsu chuckled quietly, and sat down beside the good-natured Hero. "Oh, please, you know me, Keith. When I'm told by that crazy doctor of mine to not do anything stupid for a while and let things heal by themselves, I pretty much wont listen to a word she says." He took a sip from his coffee, and leaned back while the King of Heroes laughed at him. He smiled and closed his eyes. "I'm not quite healed up enough to be working out yet, but I'll be back in here with you guys in no time. I'm just here for show."

Karina walked over, casually drinking from a plain water bottle, wiping her mouth when she was done. "I thought that you had severe burning from two separate acts of idiocy?"

"Two?" Kotetsu looked over to his partner, who was toweling off his hair, no doubt just returning from having a shower in the communal rooms. Christ, he must have been here early to have been done his entire gig already. "What do you mean?"

Karina shrugged and went back to her water, pretty much ignoring the other blonde. "That's just what Nathan told me."

"Sweetie, that was between girls." Nathan chided, though there was no seriousness there. He looked like he had just walked in, workout uniform and makeup immaculate, though he had no doubt been here for hours, and he leaned casually over the banister beside where he and Keith were sitting. He winked at Kotetsu, and ran his perfect pink nails through the brunette's hair. "Good morning, honey. Have I ever told you that you have the sexiest bedhead?"

Kotetsu grinned. Ah, this felt nice; being able to banter with the other Heroes was just too normal not to make him feel awesome. "On many different occasions, 'sweetie'." he stuck out his tongue with biting sarcasm, and the dark skinned man pouted, but kept running his hands through his hair. He looked over at his partner, "And yeah. I got hit by that crazy mecha thing before you bothered to show up. Shouldn't you guys be working out and not chatting with a poor, injured old man?" He gestured over to Antonio, who had done the sensible thing and waved when he'd walked in and continued bench pressing what was no doubt an absolutely obscene number, and Ivan, who had given him a shy smile before continuing his kata. "Follow their example, or you'll get pudgy."

"I wont get 'pudgy', old man." Bunny put one hand on his hip and cocked his eyebrow. "Besides, I'm already done. How's your shoulder?"

"You asked me the same thing yesterday over the phone." a wild grin appeared on his face. "Worried about me, Lil' Bunny?"

The blonde frowned. "You are injured because of me, you know. Also, it's Barnaby, not Bunny." He stalked off, and Kotetsu laughed, smiling into his coffee cup.

Keith, for the record, seemed genuinely confused, but happy (which was not much deviance from normal, really), and the other two just kind of stared. "...''because of me...''?" both Karina and Nathan inquired quietly, his hands stopping mid-pet, and her practically spitting out her water and frothing at the mouth. They also both practically jumped on him enthusiastically, each gripping one arm tightly. "What did he mean, ''you're injured because of him''? That's impossible!"

Blinking, and then bursting into a wide smile again and taking another drink from his coffee, he admitted, "Well, I kind of jumped in front of him when Lunatic shot at him. He was meant to be the one injured, not me, but well, as it turns out-"

Nathan brought him into a tight hug, pressing Kotetsu's head against breasts that he did not have. "Oh honey! I'm so proud of you! You've finally moved on~!"

"SON OF A BITCH!" she swore loudly, storming out of the gym, the rest of the Heroes practically ogling her as she went.

Kotetsu just kind of blinked at them.  
____________

Perhaps, the next time he decided to get drunk off of his ass, he should probably do it in the comfort of his own home, and not with certain very male blondes, Kotetsu inwardly groaned.

From his position on the floor, he could only really think of two things: one, his head hurt like he'd been punched in the temple by the fist of an angry God, and for two, so did his ass.

Well, three things, really. He was also kind of naked except for bandages, and that needed to be fixed right now, lest Bunny find out things that he shouldn't. Kotetsu was pretty sure that, if the purple, finger-shaped bruises on his hips indicated anything, all of that cover-up had no doubt worn off. No matter how expensive it was, it wasn't really meant for copious...contact.

He summoned up the willpower to turn his head, but didn't have to look far. Bunny was only wearing a green dress shirt (no doubt Kotetsu's own, which certainly explained the fact that it was missing from both floor and his person), which was half unbuttoned and looked like it had been hurriedly put on with no mind to what button went where. He would no doubt be extremely hung over, but for right now, he was sleeping like a log.

Kotetsu groaned. What the hell had happened last night?

_"Fuck, B-Bunny..."_

_The younger blonde ground his hips into Kotetsu's, hands tangled fiercely in brown hair, slamming their mouths together in a half-crazed parody of a kiss. He grabbed ahold of the other's shoulders, thrusting into that delicious friction with a groan, barely registering a niggling sense of 'we-shouldn't-do-this' and 'you'll-regret-it-in-the-morning' over the haze of the alcohol._

_Of course, he ignored it, biting into Barnaby's shoulder with a needy cry when his pale, slim hands found his way in between their legs, under the hem of his pants, and straight to Kotetsu's-_

Well, that certainly answered that question, though he didn't really need to actually know the details, as he had already kind of figured out the basics. Kotetsu flushed and put a hand to his face as if it would somehow stifle the memories. He really didn't want to handle that right now, especially because he was still naked. Stiffly sitting up, wincing and putting a hand to his lower back when it gave a painful twinge , he turned roughly the same shade as an overripe tomato when he realized a fourth thing:

He was...leaking, for lack of a better term.

Hastily standing and ignoring the new twinges that his back was giving him as he attempted to quietly maneuver himself towards the bathroom, he stubbed his toe on what looked to be a bottle of hand lotion. Kotetsu pressed the back of his hand into his eyes and groaned, feeling something lukewarm dribble down his inner thigh. Holy shit, what the hell was he going to say? How was he supposed to look his partner in the eye after this, knowing that they'd had drunken sex on Barnaby's apartment floor with children in the next room and also that he'd bottomed to someone younger than him?

There was a quiet groan behind him and a shift that told him that his partner (the man that he'd just had sex with, holy shit-) was waking up, and he quickly waddled into the somewhat hidden bathroom. "G-Good morning, Bunny." he called, somewhat quietly, not wanting to aggravate the blonde's hangover on top of things.

There was a quiet grumble that sounded a lot like "Well, that was reckless," and Kotetsu's heart shot up into his throat at the confused, half-awake sound that Bunny made next as he no doubt looked down and noticed that he wasn't wearing much else aside from Kotetsu's shirt. Really, somewhat strange sleepwear, even for a bachelor. "What the hell?"

Koetsu fidgeted behind the door to the bathroom, toes curling on the soft carpet and trying not to get any of the stuff that was leaking down his legs on the plush surface, lest it stain. Might as well ask the question that was bothering him, "How much do you remember of last night?" because goodness only knew how much alcohol tolerance that Bunny had, and how much he would actually remember.

His wrist beeped, and there was an answering ring from beyond the door, no doubt Bunny's doing the same thing. There was another groan, and a dull thud before quiet cursing and an indelicate, "Shut up, fuck." from the blonde. Well, he couldn't actually find it in him to blame the kid, who no doubt had a huge headache, much worse than his own. Even his ears were ringing at the shrill sound, and he would bet money that Barnaby's hangover was much worse than his was. "...Not much. Why am I naked?"

The inevitable question. "You're mostly naked, there's a difference." Kotetsu called a bit awkwardly. Did he not remember at all? ...Should he use that to his advantage? No! No, No, bad Kotetsu. That was lying, and cheating and...probably a good idea, actually, shit. It would save him a lot of trouble in the short run...But in the long run...

"Old man?"

Oh, bugger it. "You said something about streaking, I think. I honestly don't remember much either." he said, if a bit guilty. He sincerely hoped that this wouldn't come back to bite him in the ass. Again, if the circular bruises on the backs of his thighs were anything to go by. Fuck, Bunny had really not gone easy on him at all last night. Speaking of which, "Listen, can I borrow your shower? I smell like booze. Also, I kind of need my shirt back." 'Oh, and there's what is probably your semen on your bathroom floor now, but you don't really want to know where it came from, trust me.'

"Yeah, sure." There was a pause, and the clinking of bottles that Barnaby was no doubt cleaning up. "Are you sure about the shirt, though? It looks like most of the buttons are missing."

Kotetsu flushed again, and somehow resisted the urge to smack his head against the wall and yell 'And whose fault do you think that is, huh?' petulantly at the hungover twenty something. Damn it, that was his favorite shirt, too! "Never mind, then. Urgh. Can I borrow one of yours, then?"

"It wont fit."

He grit his teeth and fidgeted some more. "I'm not walking out of your apartment with no shirt on. The media will have a field day." he paused again, composing himself somewhat. "Look, I'm going to have a shower. Just...find my clothes, will you? I'm not walking around your house naked, and a shirt that's missing half the buttons is better than nothing."

All sound halted in the apartment once again. "You were naked, too?"

"...I'm easily suggestible when I'm drunk, Okay?" Fuck, this was getting harder to handle by the minute. "And no, I'm currently standing in your bathroom in one of my socks, if you really must know."

He could practically see the disgusted look that that earned him, even with the door blocking his view. "Too much information, old man." this was followed by another halfhearted moan, and the voice of his partner getting a little quieter as he moved away from where he was, no doubt moving to prepare himself something to alleviate his splitting headache, which Kotetsu wished that he had thought to do earlier. "Ugh, I'm never drinking again."


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> more sex mention

_Kotetsu arched happily into the heat pressing along his back, pale hands rubbing along his sides and raking their nails over much darker skin just below the white bandages, leaving trails of red. He could feel the sweat dripping down his forehead, knew that he was damn near drooling. There was fingers inside of him, three, stretching him to his limits, rubbing teasingly along his insides, and every time they moved, his knees shook, barely holding him up. The blonde's teeth sank into his good shoulder, and he let out a keen, clawing at the hardwood under them._

_"...Bunny...B-Bunny please-!" his voice was practically a low hum, at this point, but the message was wide and clear. The other's perfect teeth bit into him again with a low growl, and he yanked out his fingers, jamming his other hand into Kotetsu's open mouth, and he made a garbled noise of disappointment, feeling open and empty and exposed._

_Barely holding back another moan as Barnaby's eyes raked over his prone from, Kotetsu thrust weakly back into the blonde. He couldn't seem to stop shivering._

_He could feel short puffs of breath along the side of his neck as the blonde gently fucked his mouth with his clean fingers, rubbing them along his tongue, and bending his head into the crook of dark, flushed skin. Hot, heavy hardness pressed insistently into the back of his thigh. "It's Barnaby, damn you." he whispered acidly into the skin just below his ear just as Kotetsu's elbows slammed against the ground and he released a hearty muffled cry when he was suddenly **filled**_

Kotetsu shot up out of bed, falling on the floor with a dull thud and a yelp, groggily blinking sleep away, before dismally assessing the situation in his pants. The sex had been great, there was no denying that. He had not a clue as to where Bunny had learned half the stuff that he'd done to him, but he hadn't exactly been in the best position to ask. Kotetsu was definitely okay with this, really, but considering that this was the third day in a row that he'd woken up sweating and with a hard on, he decided that enough was enough.

If he was going to take a holiday, he was going to do this properly.

After they'd charged into the abandoned warehouse to find both Pao Lin and the mayor's son perfectly safe, and gained a newfound respect for Dragon Kid, Tiger and Bunny were left with pretty much nothing to do. As it turned out, the reason why Lloyds had called them that morning wasn't to give then a new mission, or even to give them hell for loosing their charge in the first place, but to give them a little time off. Crime, it seemed, was on holiday, and therefore, a few of the Heroes were also getting some down time.

Grumbling, he rose from the floor, rubbing his lower back and trying to will his morning wood away. What was he, fifteen again? Then again, it wasn't really normal to be having sex with your partner of barely a month, anyway, and it definitely wasn't kosher to be dreaming of said sex afterwards, no matter how deprived of sex you were beforehand. How had that night even come to pass, anyway?

Time for a well deserved actual vacation, the brunette decided, holding the old fashioned phone to his ear as it rang, one hand on the wheel of his car. "Hello, Kaede!" he cheerfully called into the receiver when she picked up. "It's your papa!"

"I know who it is, Dad." His smile grew wider as he turned onto the bridge that would get him to Oriental Town. "Why are you calling? I have to be at school soon, you know."

Ahh, she was so much like her mother, always so serious about her schoolwork. "Yes, I know. Guess where I'm headed right now?" He frowned a bit at the traffic, but it wasn't anything that he wasn't willing to wait for, so it was kind of irrelevant. His wrist beeped, and he looked at it casually. Shit, it was Bunny...it would be pretty rude not to answer, and it could be something important "I'm on my way to come and see you~!" he cooed into the phone. "But listen, I'll be there when you get home from school, okay? Papa has some business he has to take care of before he can come."

Even though she thought that he was probably lying, he could tell that she was happy when she hung up on him. Oh, kids these days. Speaking of which, he poked the button on the bracelet that answered the call just before it went to his voicemail. "Hey, Bunny~! How's it going?"

"Old man. I'm just calling to let you know that I'll be out of town for a couple days." Bunny sounded...happy? Angry? There was some shuffling, and the whir of a car, which allowed Kotetsu to think that he was also on the road. "I think, I may have a lead on who killed my parents." Kotetsu finally defined exactly what Bunny was sounding like—excited, in a bloodthirsty kind of way.

He smiled again, though this time it was a bit nervously. "That's great, Bunny! You see, I left a message on your phone myself this morning, I'm also heading-"

An explosion cut him off, barely a few feet in front of his car, and he slammed on the breaks, swearing heavily.

"Old man? Old man! Hey, answer me!"

He woke up a couple minutes later, to Bunny yelling frantically over his wrist phone and a throbbing headache. "...Aha, I'm fine, don't worry. I just hit my head a bit." he mumbled in reassurance through the phone line. "Listen, Bunny, I'll call you back, Okay? There was an explosion and-" "Bonjour, Heroes." Damn it, Agnes. "Hello, director." he responded dismally, hearing Bunny do the same. She made a confused noise; she probably hadn't even called Bunny in the first place. "We were on the phone, you interrupted." he explained, wiping the dab of blood from his forehead. "Whatever, continue with what you were saying."

"How rude, bothering him on his day off, Tiger." she chided, blatantly ignoring the fact that it was his day off, too, damnit. "Anyway, I'm calling because there were terrorist bombings on the Bronx bridge leading out of the city. We need you Heroes to head over as quickly as possible, as the perps might still be around."

"No, there's no one here." He heard dual noises of shock and uncomprehension and sighed. Bunny really must have been in a hurry if he hadn't even bothered to check his voicemail before he left, stupid kid. "I was heading out to see my daughter, since it's also a day off for me, and I'm currently on the Bronx Bridge. I think it must have been set up beforehand, but there's no one-"

A sceam cut him off from outside, and he grabbed the spare domino mask that he kept in the glovebox, for emergancies. Leaping out of the car, and quickly locking it behind him, he ran towards the source of the noise, and had to pause for a second when he saw the cause. "Nevermind," he panted, "Cancel everything I just said. There's several mobile armors here, armed. Agnes, if you want your story, you're going to want to get here fast, because they're going to start shooting people any minute now, and I can't just let that happen, you know that."

He heard the click of her handing up on him, but Bunny was still on the line. "Stay where you are, Old man, I'm coming to help you out-"

"Not a chance." Kotetsu frowned, and placed the domino mask on his face, covering the receptor of the wristband, though he doubted it would do much. "Everyone, please evacuate back towards the city. The other Heroes will be here soon, but for now, I, Wild Tiger, will take care of things." People pretty much began sprinting away at his prompting, which was good, and he uncovered his wrist. "You've been waiting for twenty years to get this done, haven't you? So go and get things done!"

The conflict in Bunny's quiet mumbling was apparent, and starting to piss him off. "Look, just trust me, Okay?" He knew that he was going to be in realt trouble if he messed this up now, but he grit his teeth against the implications of Bunny's shocked and uncertain noise. "I can handle things here. Go get your man, Bunny."

"You don't even have your suit! You're just as vulnerable as a citizen right now, up against only you know how many mobile suits!" Bunny yelled at him, and the almost desperate quality of his voice shocked Kotetsu. "You've already been hurt twice because of my negligence-"

Kotetsu balked, staring at his wristwatch like it was possessed, and then jerked his head to the side as on of the mechs finally realized that he was still there, and walking towards them. "Are you serious? You're blaming yourself for that?" he shook his head quickly as if to reinforce his denial, though the blonde couldn't see it, and talked over the blonde's talk of duty, not really wanting to hear it. "Look, there's more important things going on for you right now than helping out an old man like me. Just go, you're distracting me!"

He didn't give him any more chance to reject him, hanging up quickly, before having to quickly jump back at a stray burst of gunfire from the mechs. A loud blare of a horn broke his focus and he was almost shot, though he couldn't be mad when he saw what was honking at him. "Saito!"  
___________

This wasn't happening.

He knew that those bloody things in the toy store had looked like something Kriem would like. The second that he'd yanked the door off of the cockpit and saw that Mad Bear staring back at him, glowing a very faint orange, his heart plunged into his stomach, and a couple bullets had pinged off of his suit from his distraction, leaving a few dents.

Shit was going downhill extremely fast, and Kotetsu couldn't think of anything to stop it. "What are you thinking, Kriem...?" he mumbled to himself, hearing Agnes order some of the Heroes elsewhere. There was twelve more of these things, Goddamn. At least they weren't especially hard to take out, as long as you could dodge the bullets for long enough, and if he wanted to be able to do that, he needed to move, and quickly. He called up Agnes, "Those things are being run by stuffed animals!" he said as soon as she answered, and then at her disbelief, "No, seriously. Have you ever heard of a Mad Bear? I went to go and get my kid a stuffed toy and saw them in the shop—they're what's piloting them somehow!"

He didn't let her answer, though she knew that the cameras above him where whirring around, trying to get a glimpse of what he was talking about. Kotetsu almost facepalmed, pointing in the direction of the pink plush that was currently running away from him. Damn it, Kriem, those things were seriously ugly.

'Powers exhausted in two minutes' his suit supplied helpfully, and he grimaced. Standing from his position crouched by the edge of the bridge, he immediately got back to work destroying the mechs, not bothering to rip them open now that he knew what was inside. A simple explosion would render the bears autonomy rather ineffective, considering they had no opposable thumbs with which to wield weapons, or anything like that.

Or did they? Damn it.

His muscles strained against his suit, every single one pulled taught as he fought to hold on to the car and his lifeline at the same time. The strain on his not-yet-healed shoulder caused him to grit his teeth as he felt the fresh bandages begin to soak through again under the armor.

He couldn't let her fall. He couldn'tcouldn'tcouldn't-

"Ah, Damnit!" Summoning reserves of strength he didn't know he had with a roar, Kotetsu brought his arms together, connecting the two wires and suspending the woman in the car. He staggered back from the connection, rubbing his now sore arms, and called out to her when he felt that his voice wouldn't shake too much. "These will hold you up for a while. I'll come back to help you when I can-"

He'd gone back too far. His heel slid downwards on the steep slope that was the area that had been blown away by the first explosions, and he would have been able to regain his balance if not for another bomb pretty much directly beside him that blew him backwards further.

Everything seemed to slow down. He closed his eyes, and braced himself.

'Ah, Tomoe, I'm sorry.'

He slammed into something hard and metal with a large clang and a graceless "Oof", and felt himself being propelled upwards, instead of what he was expecting. Winded, he couldn't open his eyes for a second more, and when he did, Kotetsu was pleasantly surprised.

"Are you alright?" The familiar, ridiculous pink suit that belonged to his partner asked him, somewhat cheekily.

"Whuh...Bunny...Why are you here?"

His partner laughed. "I haven't carried you like this in a long time, Old man. Have you gained weight?"

The question was a tease if he'd ever heard one, and Kotetsu couldn't even respond for a minute he was too busy trying to get over the fact that holy shit, he wasn't dead. It was only when the two of them were back on solid ground that he could find the air to speak, though he couldn't keep the gratefulness out of his voice. "Shut up. Put me down." he did, surprisingly, and Kotetsu couldn't keep the grin off of his face. "How did it go?"

"He's serving a two hundred and fifty year sentence," it sounded like his partner was smiling at him as he dusted himself off, and he was kind of tempted to do a little happy dance, though he obviously didn't. "I can go and see him at any time. Besides, now I don't owe you for saving me anymore."

Kotetsu had a really stupid expression on now, he was sure. "You didn't owe me in the first place, idiot. Now, lets finish up here, and then we can go pay this guy a visit."

"Try not to get in my way." Yeah, Bunny was definitely teasing him, now.

"Smartass-"

The hatch on one of the suits opened, cueing the rest of them to pop open, and interrupting what would have been the start of a seriously awesome tag-team battle. "Stuffies-?" Bunny asked confusedly before the Mad Bear heads blasted into the air, leaving a trail of smoke behind them. "Exploding rocket stuffies. Now I think I've seen it all."

Tiger was about to bite back with something sarcastic, but has interrupted by a card falling in front of his face, followed by a few thousand more. "What...?" He snatched one out of the air, and the Ouroboros greeted him like a slap to the face. If he didn't already think that Kriem was behind this, this would have definitely cued him in. "This is..."

A slight rattling drew his attention to his partner, who was shaking and holding a card of his own. "Bunny-!"

"Resistance is futile. I repeat, resistance is futile." There was a sudden, mechanical blare from above, and both up them looked skywards. A massive airship was simply floating there, an equally massive screen displaying the same symbol that was on the cards that were scattered around their feet, before switching to Kriem's now much older form. And Goddamnit if she didn't look damn near the same that she did twenty years ago with a different haircut. There was no mistaking it now, he was neck deep in some serious shit. "Good evening, citizens of Sternbild. Our name is Ouroboros."

Bunny made a strangled noise of rage, and Tiger could have puked. The insides of his stomach were whirring about along with the tandem of cursing in his head. "We now control the main routes going both in and out of Sternbild, and you can consider yourselves hostages for the time being." She laughed, and Kotetsu died a little inside. "We have only one demand, and it's fairly simple. We ask that you release our comrade currently being held in the Abas prison." here it comes, the real shit storm, fuck he was going to die. "If you do not comply, we will destroy half of the pillars supporting the city, and you will all sink. I wonder, how many of Sternbild's twenty million people will survive..." she gave a small, eerie giggle, and his stomach lurched. "If you wish to save yourselves, release him immediately...our comrade, Jake Martinez. Byebye~"

The broadcast cut out, and Kotetsu just sat there trembling, looking utterly lost.

"ARGHH! It's like they knew! They fucking knew! I was so close!"

The scream, anguished and pissed off, cut into his train of thought, and he spared a glance at his partner, who was shaking just as hard. "Bunny...?" he asked quietly, though he wasn't sure that he wanted to know. His heart pounded at the blonde's ramblings, and he knew that he was going to regret it but- "What?"

"Jake Martinez..." Bunny was seething, breathing hard and his hands clenched into trembling balls, though he managed to swallow hard and calm down enough to finish explaining. "Jake Martinez is the man who killed my parents."

And if Kotetsu thought he was in shit before, things just got a thousand times worse.


	11. Chapter 11

They had fucked up. Big time.

Ivan's plan was risky to begin with, yes, and they had known that, but now, the poor kid was in the hospital with some pretty major injuries, though apparently he did managed to find out a few things about the control of the bears. Honestly, probably nothing that Kotetsu himself couldn't have told them if he wasn't so afraid of outing himself. Origami had also apologized profusely for letting slip some crucial information about powers and so forth, but hey, the kid had never been taught how to withstand torture, it was to be expected. Jake, Kotetsu knew from experience, was brutally ruthless. And now, thanks to him ''not trusting'' his partner, Barnaby was beyond pissed off at him too on top of everything else.

This was turning out to be ridiculously complicated and extremely bad for his blood pressure and general mental health. He was spinning himself around in circles, trying to figure out a way to let them know about Jake's powers without implicating himself in any way shape, or form, and it was proving to be damn near impossible.

He was sitting with the rest of the Heroes minus Keith, who had already lost to the clown, and Antonio, who was no doubt currently losing. Pale, and shaking somewhat, Kotetsu had already told everyone that he was fine, and just nervous, but even the most oblivious people could tell that there was something other than just nerves going on right now inside Kotetsu's head. Quite frankly, he didn't actually care at this point. What mattered right now was how, exactly, was he going to go about doing this? He couldn't sit by and watch his friends get picked off one by one, not knowing anything about Jake or what he was capable of, but he couldn't exactly throw himself into the fire by revealing everything, either.

Yes, it was selfish. But, it was probably for the best. He was friends with these people, for heaven's sake. He didn't want to lose them, and letting them know that yeah, this guy, that is currently wiping the floor with every last one of you and killed Bunny's parents is my old father figure.Somehow, he didn't think that that would go well.

They had sat and watched both the King of Heroes and the Tank get annihilated on live television, and Kotetsu had done nothing but sit there, watching as if in a trance. He couldn't tell them that Jake could read minds. As far as they knew, he had only just heard of the man as they had. Bunny had reprimanded him for ''jumping to conclusions'' as a front, and they wouldn't believe him anyway if he told them of his other, crucial NEXT power.

"Ahh, Wild Tiger seems to be the next one, Master Jake." he heard Kriem coo, and looked up blandly. "Ooh, look! It says he has something called the hundred power, which boosts any attribute of his and lasts for five minutes at a time." she gestured at the magazine that they had picked up somewhere, highlighting details that were important about the various Heroes. Kotetsu winced. "Sounds familiar, no?"

Jake just gave her a lazy grin and leaned back on his chair. "Very familiar." Jake already knew that either him or Barnaby was the Kotetsu T. Kaburagi that he had worked with as a kid, and Bunny didn't really fit the bill. He no doubt knew exactly who he was, and planned to use it to his advantage.

"Though, it is the dipshit that is always paying damage fines, isn't it? Might as well pick the next one, too." Jake swiped the next Mad Bear off of Kriem's umbrella, and displayed the card to the camera after reading it cheerfully. "Oh, it's Barnaby Brooks Jr., the revenge kid. How adorable. I'll pick these two off one right after the other, since I already know how their powers work." He leered at the camera. "See you in a minute, 'Wild Tiger'." he mocked, before the camera shut down and the screen went black.

The problem with Jake's power was that he was limited to simply hearing thoughts. A persons memories and mind were inaccessible, but the immediate thoughts were like someone had said them out loud. Of course, like everyone else, he could lose control; unstable emotions could cause him to simply ''explode'', and activate by accident, which could overwhelm him easily. Though, when he was controlling his power specifically, Jake could only access one thought process at a time, which could be used to the Heroes' advantage.

Which is of course why he chose to fight them all one on one.

Kotetsu could only hope that he could control himself to not think, or thing about stupid things while they fought, and not about himself or where he was planning to attack. It could get him killed, and he wasn't cool with that. At least he had somewhat of an advantage, then.

He put his hand on Bunny's shoulder and paused before he left. "No matter what you hear them say out there, just trust me, Okay? I wont lose."

"Why should I-"

Kotetsu had already left the room, and didn't pause when the other Heroes called out to him.  
___________

"Well, well, look who's here, Kriem." Jake smiled with all of his teeth, looking as crazy as ever. "If it isn't Kotetsu T. Kaburagi in all of his glory."

Kotetsu groaned, putting his face in his hands. Why had he agreed to come here, again? "Please tell me the cameras aren't on yet. I do have a secret identity to protect, after all."

The man grinned, and stuck out his tongue. "Don't worry, this little conversation is just between you, and me." he was probably lying through his teeth, but whatever. Kotetsu wasn't in a position to argue. "Tell me, boy, is this what you've done with your life? Become so soft that you're protecting the people you hated?" he chuckled, to Kotetsu's dismay. "You know, it's really adorable that you're worrying about your secret identity. What happened to that tattoo that I gave you? In such a pretty place, too, I hope you haven't destroyed it."

'Ducks.' Kotetsu forced himself to think, miserably. 'Cabbage, potatoes, fried rice, Bunnies-' shit, no, that was bad. "Gonna have to say, I liked you better with black hair, Jake. The pink doesn't suit your face."

Jake hmmphed and ran a hand over his fur coat. "What would a traitor know about fashion? Did your precious "Bunny" teach you a thing or two?" Blinking, and staring right at Kotetsu, he leered at him. Kotetsu shrank miserably. "Was it before, or after he fucked you like a whore?"

"Shut up." he shook, from both fear and outrage. Fuck, why did this always happen? "Shut up, shut up. Now I know you're a liar, you wouldn't say that just to piss me off." he desprately tried to think of anything but that night, and failed miserably. Oh well, if he couldn't get sex off of his brain, maybe he could distract Jake with it?

Unlikely, now that he'd thought that. Fucking balls, why was not thinking so hard?

His communication buzzed, before Agnes' voice cut into his thoughts. "Tiger, are you there? What the hell are you doing right now? Where are you-?"

Jake laughed again, cruelly this time. "Now, what did I tell you? Serves you right for not believing me." Kotetsu didn't respond, and cut the communication with Agnes without warning, her voice trailing off with a fizzle before the line went dead. "What I want to know right now, is if you're actually going to fight me or not."

'No.' "Yes."

"That's a messed up answer, Kotecchan." that and a smile was all the warning he got before Jake slammed his fist into his stomach, and he made a weak, pained sound that sounded a lot like the start of "Don't call me that.". "Kriem, start the cameras."

"Aww, but I wanted to talk to Kotetsu-kun for a while too~" she whined, and Kotetsu grit his teeth, trying not to cry out in pain. "Oh well." there was crackle of static before he heard her voice being like from a microphone. "Oh dear, it seems that the fight between Kotetsu-kun and Master Jake has already started. How careless of me~"

He grunted quietly, hopping away from Jake when he pulled his fist back to punch him again. "Kriem, you're older than I am, please stop acting like you're twelve." he mumbled, though the camera no doubt picked it up anyway. 'Brussels sprouts.' he thought determinedly. Sticking with food seemed to be a good plan. He dodged another attack, activating his hundred power 'Jake, we don't have to do this, you can just go back to prison-'

"Like hell!" three of the 'barriers' blasted the ground beside him, and Kotetsu leapt away quickly. "I'd kill even you if it meant staying out of that place."

'I don't want to fight you!' He yelled in his mind, pretty much a last ditch effort. He already looked crazy enough, just sitting there and letting Jake have a one-sided conversation with himself. 'Just fucking listen to me, will you?' For his efforts, thanks to his momentary lapse in concentration, he was slammed against a wall and held there by his neck. Careless. "You are a traitor to everything I taught you." the tattooed man hissed venomously, shaking his hand back and forth. His skull was rammed against the stone again, making Kotetsu see stars and flashes of light. "You have betrayed me and Kriem, your fucking family!You are a traitor to Ou-"

Kotetsu, unfocused and gasping, grabbed the arm who's hand was wrapped around his throat and squeezed, causing the man to trail off in pain. "Shut up, damn you!" 'I grew up! I was young, and stupid, and prejudiced against, I had no friends, is it any wonder that I went to you? I left Ouroboros almost twenty years ago! Leave it alone!'

Jake slammed his head against the wall again-'Fuck, why did I leave my helmet behind?'-and then snatched his arm back when Kotetsu squeezed again, harder this time. The brunette slid down the wall, coughing slightly and head throbbing. "...Do you think being a Hero will somehow allow you to atone for your sins?" he leered, leaning in and letting Kotetsu get a good close look at his blue lipstick and abstract tattoos. "Is it to erase the memory of all of the people you-" A fist was slammed into his cocky face before he could finish, making him stagger backwards. "The fuck was that?" the pink-haired man yelled. "What the fuck happened to 'I don't wanna fight you,' hah?"

"I thought I told you to shut up!"

"Wao~" Kriem called, startling Kotetsu and apparently playing commentator. "That's the first hit that anyone has scored on Master Jake so far! And what's all this about 'not wanting to fight' and Kotetsu-kun being a 'traitor', mm? I wonder~." Kotetsu cussed. He'd forgotten about the audience that was watching this.

He looked back at Jake, who had apparently recovered from his previous blow already, and then cussed again as he barely dodged a barrier that was tossed at him. "You cocky son of a bitch. Just wait until that fucking power of yours wears out, I will string you up and fucking destroy you!" the older man raged, orange glow intensifying.

"The hell? Did you think that I wasn't going to fight back? Stupid clown." he grinned a bit, though it was mirthless. "Consider it revenge for slamming my head against a wall."  
_________

"I am extremely confused." intoned Pao Lin, sitting nervously in the training room. "It's like...we can only hear one side of half the conversation."

Nathan and Karina both nodded. Barnaby said nothing, face not showing any emotion as he watch what was happening to his partner on the screen.  
_________

'Power exhausted in ten seconds'

He saw Jake's grin, and leapt away as far as he could. 'This can't be happening.'

"What are you running away for? Scared that I'll bite?"

'six'

Jake was flinging more barriers at him, and he tried to dodge the best he could.

' _I'm-_ '

"Shall I expose you for the traitor you are? You haven't told any of your friends yet have you?" He could hear him purr, much closer now than before.

'three'

 _'Going to die. I'm sorry-_ '

'two'

He charged, aiming to knock Jake out, at least, but

'one'

' _-Tomoe, Kaede, Bunny. I tried my best._ '

"Too bad."


	12. Chapter 11

Kotetsu was in major trouble. On his knees in front of the man he'd looked up to as a kid...

' _I just...just...until morning..._ '

"Ahh, what was that?" a foot met his face with a crunch for what was probably the fourth time, and he would have been spitting out teeth if not for his timely duck. Instead, his face slammed into the mud, and he choked on a mouthful. "I'm sorry, I don't speak to traitors..."

He couldn't see Jake's smile as he pushed his face further into the sludge, but he knew it was there. A sharp kick enhanced with a blast of blue to his side flung him from the muck and into a nearby wall. Blood dribbled down his chin. It hurt to breathe, and he had to cough, but he still staggered to his feet.

"I'm not...going to..." he leaned against the wall, clutching his ribs, ' _broken, no doubt_ '. And closed his eyes, a huge mistake-

Barriers slammed into him, one after the other. "You honestly thought that you would get away with this?" Concrete pebbles pinged off of his head as the dent in the huge stone wall got bigger and bigger with each successive hit. "No one gets away unpunished~" Jaked chided, though he wasn't listening, having to focus his full attention on simply staying concious. "You know, I liked you. You had potential. I see that that means nothing to you; you're nothing but a piece of trash now." He only had a second of rest before Jake got up close and personal, jamming his nose into the side of his muddy face. "You know what happens to people who betray me, don't you?" there was a second pause before-"Bang." he whispered in his ear mischeviously. Kotetsu's eyes widened, ' _Oh FUCK-_ ' before a final sharp blast cut into his right side, shattering what remained of his suit and splattering blood onto the wall.

He slumped down against the wall, vision blurry, leaving a trail of red behind him.

"You can come and collect him now, Heroes. I'm done~"

* * *

' _Oh...fuck...this isn't good._ '

"His heart rate is dropping!"

The whir of wheels, lying down. A soft groan. Focus on breathing.

"We're still loosing blood fast; prepare for a blood transfusion, now!"

' _I can't-_ '

* * *

" _Bonjour, Heroes._ "

His hand twitched, and his eyelids fluttered, and he immediately regretted even waking up. Every single cell in his entire body was singing with pain. He groaned unhappily. " _We've set up the jammers. I want you to take out those Mad Bears controlling the exosuits..._ " he couldn't understand the rest of whatever he was saying, but didn't let it bother him. He remembered to breathe. " _Blue Rose, take North Bronze. Dragon Kid, you've got South-_ "

What were they talking about? Mad Bears? He groaned again, and lifted his hand to his face, feeling the oxygen mask. Oh yeah. Those ugly things that Kriem-

Kotetsu's memory came rushing back with a whir that made his head hurt, and he groaned again. " _Fire Emblem, you go-_ "

"I'm going too." It was muffled, though it got everyone's attention. The mask came off, ' _Shit, even breathing hurts_ '. "I'm going too," he repeated, a bit deliriously, and sat up to an entire symphony from his body, and had to resist the urge to lie back down quickly and pass out again. "Where should I go?" His vision swam a bit, but that was nothing to be concerned about, as long as he was careful.

"WHAT? Are you crazy-?"

"-Mr. Wild Tiger, you're in no condition to be-"

"Kotetsu-"

He slid gingerly off the bed, and took the IV out of his arm. "I can't...lie down while you guys do all the work." he staggered forward a few steps, having to put his head between his knees to avoid puking. The world was spinning, and it was making him dizzy, like a bad roller coaster ride that he couldn't get off. "Agnes, I have to go-"

"Will you cut it out?" Karina's voice broke him out the stupor he was in, trying not to be sick all over the floor. "You'll just be a burden if you come! Totally useless!"

Agnes sighed. " _This is no time to be fighting._ "

Karina ignored her. "You're Barnaby's partner, aren't you? You should be thinking of a way to help him defeat Jake!"

Jerking and almost falling over, he groaned unhappily but he managed to stand up straight again. Karina had already hung up on him, but it didn't matter. "Stupid kid...that's why I need to go..."

"Blue Rose is right. Just stay put for now, you idiot." ah that was Antonio. Good to see that he was Okay, even though he was wearing a neck brace.

Another wave of nausea crashed over him, though it had nothing to do with his injuries, and he hand to pitch to the floor, bracing himself on his gurney. The TV was broadcasting Barnaby's fight with Jake, and the blonde...wasn't looking so good. Was he that worried? "D-Damn it...Say...while I was out, did Bunny manage to land any hits on Jake?" he received an entirely negative answer.

"How did you do it?"

"Huh?"

Ivan shifted on the chair. Oh, he was looking better, too. That was good. "You're the only one who has landed a hit on Jake. How?"

Kotetsu looked away. "I think...that I might have figured something out." he lied. "That's why I need to go. Bunny won't be able to do anything against him. He's far too rash, and thinks too much about everything he does. Jake will be able to see right through him."

"What?"

The TV interrupted them, Jake's voice ringing in their ears. " _Did I **ever** say that I only had **one** power?_ " Koetesu winced when he laughed, but wasn't surprised at all, unlike the other occupants of the room he was in. He couldn't even force himself to act shocked, not with Bunny being manhandled right in front of him like that. " _Oops, that's all the hints you're getting. Come on, Bunny-boy. Let's play some more!_ " Alright, that did it, Kotetsu was officially pissed off now.

Antonio growled in frustration before yelling: "What hints? He's obviously mocking us!"

"Well, one thing's for sure." Kotetsu sighed, and moved to stand up again now that he wasn't feeling so much sick as as worried out of his mind. "I'm right. His second power is what's stopping us from hitting him."

"What, you mean you figured it out? His second power?"

He didn't answer, but as soon as he tried to stand, his body immediately refused him, and collapsed back down, panting hard. Shit, the drugs that they gave him must be wearing off, or something. "...Ugh. I have to tell Bunny, right away." at this rate, he definitely wasn't going anywhere right now, though.

"You're a wreck! It has to be—"

Kotetsu cut off his friend, as much as it pained him to talk right now. "No. It has to be me. Sorry, Antonio." he fought to control his breathing, and, when he was calm enough, reached for his Hundred Power with a yell. "I...have to go. See? Good as new." he panted when the blue faded from intense light to the glow of a regular NEXT, and then back to nothing at all, having exchanged the rest of his time for an even faster recovery. He slipped on his shirt, vest and tie, making sure to mask the pain that was still there. He could only do so much; the little cuts and bruises were healed, sure, but the big one, from when Jake **tore a hole through his side** was pretty hard to repair, even with the Hundred Power. It wasn't the best, but it was certainly better than nothing, though the morphine or whatever had completely worn off thanks to it. There were consequences to these things, after all.

"It can't be...you used your Hundred Power to accelerate your healing?" Keith looked pretty shocked. Well, it was kind of amazing.

He smiled. "Yeah. A full recovery. Don't worry about me..." his smile turned into more of a grimace, as the remaining wound gave a painful twinge and he made for the door. "Well, see you." Kotetsu was honestly just grateful that Antonio hadn't stopped him. Once he rounded the corner away from the room, he had to lean against the wall for support, clutching his side gently. He brought up his wrist and pressed a few buttons. "Hey, Dr. Saito? I need a favour."

* * *

"Hey, you Okay? Bunny."

The other jerked away from him as if he'd been set on fire. "What?" His words were watery. Had he been crying? The blonde cleared his throat softly. "Old man! What are you doing here? Have you come to get in my way again?" Ouch, that stung, he winced a little, but the small smile soon returned to his face. Bunny swayed a bit before collapsing to his knees. "What about your injuries?"

He couldn't lie to his face; Kotetsu looked away and laughed a bit. "Oh those? Not a huge deal." Jake yelled something that he couldn't bring himself to pay attention to. The brunette grimaced as his partner turned away from him, ready to jump back into the fray, and thought what he thought should be intensely distracting things, just in case. He wasn't going to fuck this up again. "Wait."

"So you have come to get in my way again." The blonde scoffed. "I don't have time for this-"

"I know Jake's other power." Bunny stopped dead in his tracks, turning to stare blankly at him. ' _Carrots, turnips, roast beef, cats-_ ' Kotetsu closed his eyes, but quickly opened them again, having learned his mistake once before. "He can hear your movements, and predict where you're going to attack. Super-hearing." Barnaby stared at him like he'd grown a second head, and he was tempted to laugh at him. ' _Come on, Kotetsu, you can do this. Autumn, weddings, dinosaur, pickles-_ ' "Take this. A gift from Dr. Saito—a special ultrasonic grenade. Attack him after you wreck his ears with this."

Bunny stared at him, and then at the grenade that he placed in his hand. "...I can't trust you." He turned away, and began walking to the edge again. So they really were fucked, huh? Well, he'd tried his best. He pressed his hand against his side again, cringing at the pain. Shit, this was his nicest vest, too. That was never going to come out. ' _Gay porn, asparagus._ ' it was pretty useless now, but well, just in case it went off..."Because you didn't trust...me..." Bunny paused, and then stopped walking altogether. "Is that...blood?"

He turned around faster than he'd ever seen someone do so before, and it was faster than Kotetsu could bring himself to drag his hand away from his bleeding side. And awkward, sheepish laugh escaped him before he could stop it, and he continued to think up different ridiculous things. At this distance, Jake should be focusing his entire attention on Barnaby, but on the off chance that he wasn't...it was better to not take the risk. "You idiot! Your body will-!"

"Just trust me, Okay-!" There really was too many explosions cutting their conversations short, these days. It was getting a bit ridiculous. He could only pray that Barnaby had heard him, because, no doubt, Jake had already noticed him. He really was trying his hardest to think of distracting things, but he was running out of random, unrelated shit. On his knees and panting, he took off his vest and shirt, not wanting to stain either of them further. The black of his tattoo stood out against his skin, and though his shorts had covered it earlier, his low-cut dress pants certainly did not. He draped his shirt over his belly, examining the leaked through bandage that remained, completely useless now.

It was probably best to leave it on. He didn't really want to see the extent of the damage done.

A piercing screech—the ultrasonic thing, yes! Bunny had believed him!-rang through the air, and he wasn't sure weather to laugh or grimace. His pounding headache was bad enough, he didn't need that crazy thing on top of things. He worked his way to the edge, and saw Bunny get slammed away with another barrier, and stood-

He covered his eyes just in time for the blaze of light that came afterwards. "NOW, BUNNY!" and he could hear the impact of his partner's kick from here, as well as a scream that got closer and closer. Jake Martinez slammed into the metal roofing now three feet away from him, Bunny following quickly after. He had the presence of mind to put his shirt back on, leaving the vest draped over his exposed stomach for now. "Hi." he said cheerfully from his position on the ground when Bunny stopped strangling Jake for a second to stare at him. "Don't mind me, just assessing the damage."

Their attentions, however, were quickly reverted back to the situation at hand. "W-wait" Jake rasped, hands coming up to clutch at Barnaby's arms, though it was pretty much in vain. "Don't...don't kill me! You're a Hero, aren't you?" Barnaby hesitated, and looked at Kotetsu, who was still lying on the ground, but he didn't say anything.

Barnaby dropped him, and after several fits of coughing from the man, Kotetsu smiled at his partner. "There's no need to thank me."

"I wasn't going to!" Kotetsu made a small sound of confusion before it was explained to him. "Why did you trick me? You should have just told me it was a stun grenade in the first place!"

Jake was still coughing, and Barnaby placed a foot on his chest to keep him exactly where he was. "Oh." Kotetsu grinned. "That. Do you have any idea how hard it is to keep secrets in your own head? He would have figured out the plan instantly if I had told you." Bunny just kind of stared at him as he buttoned up his shirt, but left it untucked. Kotetsu stood, and clapped him on the shoulder. "You still don't get it? You're pretty slow today, Bunny. He can read minds."

"How did you-"

The distinctive thrum of a helicopter interrupted them. "Hand over Master Jake! Have you forgotten that we have hostages? Do you not care what happens to the people of this city?"

"Ehehe, too bad!" Jake rasped, staggering to his feet and startling them both. "Traitors always get what they deserve, you know, Kotetsu. You wanna know so much about Ouroboros, eh kid?" He looked at Barnaby, who was understandably extremely confused, "Why don't you ask your fucking friend?" he spat, and Kotetsu's heart plunged into his stomach and instantly regretted advocating for this rat's life. Whoa, he seriously hadn't thought this through, had he? Shiiit...

Bunny looked at him, and then back at Jake, "What are you saying...?"

He tried to think of someway to damage control the situation, but it was amazing how blank his mind could be at the most inopportune moments. ' _You don't want to do this._ ' he thought furiously, and tried to keep his oncoming panic attack under control. ' _I just saved your life, you ungrateful twat, you **don't want to do this!**_ ' "Ohh, 'you don't want to do this, you don't want to do this," Jake mocked with a leer. "Why don't you just tell him, you pussy? I mean, you've already fu-"

Blue Rose's voice rang through the loudspeaker, and cut off that particularly vulgar sentence, thank God. " _Hi, this is Blue Rose. We've taken care of those nasty mobile suits. That means, no more hostages~_ " She winked at the camera. Fire Emblem and Dragon Kid each made a cameo, before the camera cut off.

Jake cursed like a sailor of the particularly surly and intoxicated variety. The whole thing was very dramatic, really, but Kotetsu couldn't really pay attention, mind still swimming. "Kriem! Catch me!"

Oh, that was new. The man leapt off of the building like a thing possessed, and Tiger finally snapped out of it. "Oh, no you don't" The wire shot out of the gadget on his wrist before he could do anything else. He needed to think these things through more, sometimes. It latched on to his target perfectly, and he skidded along the roof, wincing and clutching his side. "...Ugh, shit! Ow!"

"His hip, kid!" Jake yelled up at the blonde with a grin. "Get a good look a Kotetsu's hip. Now, you, get the fuck outta my wayyyy!"

A blue barrier was aimed poorly. It whizzed by Kotetsu's head, and smashed into the helicopter above. Oh son of a bitch. "How to I undo this thing, fuck." he scrambled to get the gadget off of his wrist, managing to undo the clasp that held the wire in place just in time for the helicopter to throw Kriem out of the window and go down with Jake, resulting in a spectacular, firey crash.

That was the last thing on his mind. Barnaby looked at him, but he couldn't bring himself to meet his eyes.


	13. Chapter 12

Kotetsu hated hospitals.

It was just...Tomoe had died in one, and before that, she'd been confined there for what was probably the most painful two and a half months of Kotetsu's life. No matter how kind the Doctors, no matter the decor, or how happy the patients were, they always held an aura of...despair and death for him. It honestly was probably just a personal thing, some kind of self-hatred or something that he projected on the crisp, clean buildings, but if it got that pessimism away from himself, then he would blame pretty much anything. He'd much rather be given the tools to fix himself up and sent home, but with a major injury, that was kind of impossible.

He didn't really know what had happened after Bunny's fight with Jake and his subsequent massive fuck up, other than what Nathan and the others had told him. He'd apparently passed out just after everyone else had showed up, not that that explained how he'd managed to get from the other side of town back to the hospital. Other than the massive wound to his side, he'd apparently also had a minor skull fracture, probably from all of those kicks to the head, and several ribs had been broken, so he was pretty much just confined to the bed for now. Kotetsu was now in an isolated ward, apparently to prevent him from being encouraged to do more reckless things. All it really managed to to was make Kotetsu feel lonely.

* * *

It was during the second week that Kotetsu was confined to the bed. Lloyds had been in to ask when he was able to come back to work, but the Doctor's hadn't been able to give him a straight answer. "It all depends," they said, "on how much he can heal himself within the next week, or so. He's sustained a lot of injuries that he hasn't come to us about over the past month or so, so there's no guarantees about anything."

He hadn't spent this long in a hospital since a ceiling beam had crashed into the back of his head four years ago and he'd gotten a seriously bad concussion and was bleeding like a stuck pig for about two hours. Hell, he hadn't seen this many bandages on his person for longer than that. He hadn't actually thought that the damages were that bad, but he couldn't really tell beyond personal experience. And, if he was being honest with himself, he often was pretty reckless and underestimated the effects of a lot of things.

He sat in bed, twiddling his thumbs and watching TV sometimes. At least the nurses made good tea, even though he'd forgotten how bland food was, and they wouldn't let him have mayo. There was nothing to do, other than complain, watch boring sitcoms, and think, and Kotetsu was beginning to regret waking up from his head injury induced coma in the first place. He'd also forgotten just how boring hospitals could get, sometimes, when you were left alone to think.

* * *

It was the beginning of his third week in what was basically solitary confinement, and he was going a little crazy. That was the only explanation for why he came up with this...this delusion.

He'd figured out why the enigma that was Barnaby Brooks Jr bothered him so much. Why the blonde was so important to him, why he desperately wanted some kind of phone call, or a visit, or **something** from his partner, even if it was to tell him that he hated him and never wanted to speak to him again, which was extremely likely. Why he was so worried about him all the time, why he'd put up with his standoffishness and lied about sleeping with him that one night to protect what they had going.

Yeah, he was definitely going a little crazy if he thought that he even might be vaguely in love with him. He needed to get out of this room.

Bunny hadn't been to visit once. Not that he could blame him, really. Kotetsu pressed the back of his hand to his eyes and grit his teeth. He'd fucked up. He'd fucked up so bad. Shit, was he actually going to cry about this? That was selfish...He should have just told them in the first place, when there wasn't something as huge as Jake and Bunny involved. A couple frustrated tears leaked out beneath his arm, and his shoulders shook. Damn it.

There was a hesitant tap on his door, and he hastily wiped his face. He shouldn't cry, that would only put a damper on things, especially since this was his first visitor in three days. The Heroes were busy, he knew. The quiet click of the door broke through the perfect, sterile silence.

"...Old man."

He cursed, and wiped harder before looking at the door, and he managed a somewhat watery, shaky smile. "...Hey Bunny." Christ, why was he still shaking? "There's a chair, if you want to sit." it wasn't his room, really, but he felt awkward if he didn't say anything to invite him in, and even more awkward with the blonde just kind of standing there, not looking at him. His partner still didn't say anything, but took a seat anyway. Each movement that he made closer to Kotetsu was tearing into him again and again, and he had to look away, lest his smile crumble further. His lips were already trembling, and he didn't need to let Bunny see this, see him so weak, Bunny couldn't-

"Kotetsu." Amber eyes widened, and he looked at his partner for the first time in just under a month. Barnaby looked like hell, dark circles under his eyes, which were red and puffy, and no doubt mimicked his own "It's your first name, isn't it?" he said nothing, but he didn't need to, the blonde already knew the answer. "You're always talking about relying on other people, about telling other people your problems and not bottling them up." he folded his hands in his lap calmly. "Isn't that a bit hypocritical?"

He bit his lip. "Bunny, I-"

"I know nothing about you, Kotetsu." Green eyes locked with his, and he couldn't look away, not from someone that determined and upset. It would be like kicking a puppy. "It was like pulling teeth to get you to tell me about Tomoe, and even then, I had to go to Rock Bison to find out her name. You expect me to trust you blindly when I know absolutely nothing!" Bunny was shaking too, he realized. A minute tremble running through his frame when his hands balled into fists and his eyes squeezed shut. It took him a minute, but the blonde calmed down enough to open his eyes and pin him down with a stare. "I only find out through slip-ups in your perfect character about you, or your family, or your past, or-or anything. I didn't even know your _name_ until that psycho yelled at you, for Christ's sake. Don't you see a problem with that? I..." an unsteady breath, and he ran his hands through his hair, messing it up.

"Show me." Kotetsu blinked at the command, "Your hip. Show me."

Breath hissed in through his teeth, and he pressed his hand to his face again. He tried again, "Bunny, I-"

Pale hands tore his hand away, forcing him to look his partner in the eye. "You're a coward." The blonde hissed, standing, gripping his wrist so hard it hurt. "Stop running away!"

"I-I can't." he could feel the rage coming off of Barnaby in waves, and he braced himself to be hit. "I don't...want you to hate me, Barnaby." it trailed off into a mumble, and he could feel the grip soften on his arm. "I know, it's stupid and selfish, but..." he laughed bitterly. "You wouldn't...look at me anymore." His hand went up, and landed on top of the blonde's head, ruffling the blonde's hair slightly. "Don't look at me with that face, Bunny. You'll hurt an old man's feelings." Kotetsu could taste salt, even though he was smiling. "Am I not allowed to?" ' _to be selfish, to want you to look at me, to want to be your friend-_ ' Bunny jerked away from the touch, looking like a scared rabbit, and it was almost cute, except for the part where it stung like a slap to the face.

"...Kotetsu-"

"Don't." Kotetsu breathed, and it was like choking. "...Just go. Please."

"Kotetsu-!"

He grabbed the hand that was still on the bed sheets, and squeezed it gently. "I'll tell you. I promise." it felt like the truth, but it could have been a lie, and _Christ, he was a coward, wasn't he-_ "Just...not right now. Okay?" he tried another reassuring smile, but it came out all wrong, and he almost choked again. "Didn't I tell you to stop looking at me with that face? It's like you don't trust me."

Barnaby stood, and Kotetsu watched him go. It was the second most painful thing he had ever done in his entire life.

* * *

It was the end of the third week that he finally got to go home, but he was denied being able to go back to Hero-ing for at least another week, though he'd been contacted several times though his work "phone". Bunny hadn't contacted him since, though this time he knew that it was because of work. Someone had to pick up the slack when he wasn't around, after all, and since they had the same powers, it only made sense that Apollon Media would be working him twice as hard. There was no doubt in his mind that thanks to that, Bunny was now overworked all to hell. Honestly, that kid couldn't take care of himself, sometimes.

...At least, that was what he hoped was the cause. Not that he wished that his partner get all stressed out and weird because of him, but it was the best scenario, considering the other possibilities. Kotetsu gently poked the now sututred wound on his side, mostly healed but still pretty tender. There was going to be a wicked scar there, that was for sure.

He didn't regret it. It was for Bunny, after all.

His shirt was off, sitting in his bedroom somewhere on the floor. It was getting late, not that he really needed to keep track of time. His shoulder had healed already, mostly thanks to his stunt with the Hundred Power. Even with the hospitals efforts, though, it still looked like someone had tried to make fabric with his skin a bit, though it was certainly better than it would have been. It wasn't pretty to look at, but then again, neither were scars in general, though Kotetsu was proud of most of them. They were proof that he'd risked himself for other people.

For some of them, that wasn't really the case. Some were proof that he'd spent time hurting other people, like the bullet wound in his shoulder that he'd gotten running away from a police officer when he was fifteen, or the stab in his lower back that he'd rather not think about. Small mercies, really, that there weren't too many of those types of scars. He could spend ages dwelling and beating himself up for the ones that he had, he didn't know what he would do with more.

He ran his fingers along the sutures gently, before pressing around the wound to check for any tenderness. Really, it was a miracle that he'd survived the thing, or so said the doctors. It wasn't everyday that someone came in with a good chunk of their side missing, he supposed, especially not a NEXT. They said that they had to hook him up to a blood transfusion for almost two hours to help regain the blood that he'd lost, and then an extra fifteen minutes because he just kept bleeding. Most of the bruises were gone, now, save for a select few. One on his wrist, shaped like a hand print and slightly yellowing around the edges (he'd prefer not to think about that one), and, of course, the extremely deep purple-black thing that was his left side where Jake had broken four of his ribs by kicking him into a wall. His back was probably torn to shreds from the impact on said wall, but he couldn't really see that, and it didn't matter. Little things like that would heal quickly, anyway. Kotetsu was sure that they were mostly gone by now.

Kotetsu sighed. He wanted to have a shower, but he knew that the hospital had forbidden him to do so. The sutures would dissolve, and he'd be left with a gaping wound again-Oh, his phone was ringing. He quickly put a new piece of gauze on the injury, secured it with some medical tape and pretty much sprinted for the bracelet he'd left on his bed. "Hello?"

"Oh honey~!" ah, it was Nathan. That was pretty unusual. "You know, you're really leading me on, answering the phone looking like that. It's very cruel~." the projection of his friend was moving around a lot as he put the bracelet on for simplicity's sake, but he could tell that there was a smile on the other man's face.

"I can answer the phone however I'd like." he laughed once he figured out what he was talking about. "Really, if half-nakedness bothers you so much, it's a wonder you survive the communal showers. I can put a shirt on, if you'd like."

Nathan batted his eyelashes, and if it were anyone else, it would be really wierd to see. "Oh, please. I wouldn't want to...impose on you like that." he said with a wink and a flirty smile. "And I can survive the communal showers perfectly well. I'm happy you care, honey."

Laughing again, Kotetsu was already slipping a black shirt over his head. "Yeah, but An-"

"Shh, hon. I'm at work." a perfectly manicured hand was brought to pink lips, and Kotetsu rolled his eyes.

"- _Rock bison_ can't. Tell me these things beforehand, would you?" At least he was already wearing pants. Sponge baths were never as fun or relaxing as showers, and they took twice as long. He hadn't gotten around to his legs yet, and he was glad that he hadn't. "Anyway, what are you calling for, if you're at work? Shouldn't you be...I dunno, doing paperwork, or saving people or something more productive than talking to me?"

A pout formed on Nathan's face, and he was this close to rolling his eyes again. "Talking to you is always productive, love, especially when it considers you and Handsome~."

Kotetsu flopped down on his bed and sighed, causing the person he was on the phone with to blink. "Urgh. What is it now, with that kid?"

"Oh nothing, actually." Kotetsu raised an eyebrow at him. "He's overworked, and tired, and it's pretty obvious that you two must have had a fight or something. I was kind of hoping that you'd confide in me, to tell the truth, because he obviously isn't going to spill the beans." he cooed, and gestured flippantly. "And, for the record, I am doing paperwork, darling."

"I see." Kotestu smiled, and leaned forwards onto his hand. "And you figured that since Bunny wont tell you what's going on, I would?" he drummed his fingers on his beard. "Not happening, man. It's between me and him."

The pout was back in full force. "You are too mean to me, honey."


	14. Chapter 13

This situation between him and his partner was becoming harder and harder to handle.

He couldn't even _breathe_ in the same room as Barnaby without feeling like he was going to throw up. Kotetsu quietly groaned; this guilt was awful to handle. It didn't really help that he was stuck doing paperwork in the same office as him for probably the next four of five hours, judging by the stack of paper that had piled up on his desk during his absence. It honestly wasn't like he had **tried** to get severely injured. Damn it, even though worker's compensation was pretty awesome, filing the paperwork for getting injured on the job was an absolute pain. Especially if you were resolutely trying to ignore the man tapping away at his own computer right beside you. Yeah, that really made things pretty difficult sometimes. But really, trying to avoid your own partner is pretty impossible to begin with. Kotetsu leaned back in his chair, stretching out and hooking his leg around his desk to avoid falling over, which would ruin his chances of getting out of the office any time soon. It was almost lunchtime, anyway. It wasn't like sneaking out to get a bite to eat before you sat there forever was a cardinal sin. And given the current tensions, he didn't know how much longer he could hold out without just running out of the office like his ass had caught fire.

Surprisingly, Bunny didn't do a thing. The blonde simply sat there, clicking away and signing things, while Kotetsu waltzed out of the room. That kind of stung.

Kotetsu headed for the resting room, where the vending machines were on this floor, jamming his hands into his pockets. Damn, why did this have to hurt so much?

Pulling out his wallet and some change, he purchased the least disgusting-looking tiny, overpriced sandwich that was there. It was going to be disgusting anyway, he knew, but that was kind of punishment for not packing a proper lunch. The fact that what he would have packed would probably have been fried rice and mayo was pretty irrelevant—at least that would have been somewhat tasty and nutritious.

Yeah, as he thought, it was really gross, with wilted lettuce and extremely bland cheese. Urgh.

The blonde still hadn't come after him. The morning he'd spent in the office was practically silent, anyway. Neither of them had bothered to say a word to each other, and Kotetsu was beginning to get kind of offended, though it wasn't like it was that much different from the norm. He sighed unhappily, and grimaced, hurriedly finishing off the sandwich. He needed sustenance, and he wasn't going to suffer more than he had to. His side throbbed ungratefully.

That wound was mostly healed by now, and as he'd thought, the scar was absolutely wicked. Anyway, it kind of matched the one that he'd gotten defending Bunny before that. It was kind of like a badge of honor or something, as most of his scars were, especially since it was for his partner. ' _Aha, that's adorable._ ' His smile was a self-deprecating, and without the tiniest iota of humour. ' _What's next, you're going to profess your undying love? "Oh, Bunny, I wear these scars happily, because I got them protecting you~" As if that will go over well, Kotetsu, you idiot. I can't believe this is happening._ '

He blandly walked to the coffee machine, swallowing a bit of bile and leaning against the wall with his forearm. Retrieving a plastic cup, he scowled at his reflection in the glass pot. ' _Don't do this to yourself. Stop thinking about it. You're just turning yourself in circles and making it worse._ ' his brow furrowed and he bit his tongue, quickly marching out of the room and up to the stairwell. The banister and the cold morning air stared back at him blankly, and his mood worsened. Ah, Bunny had cussed him out here, just before his fight with Jake. Kotetsu leaned over the banister, calmly taking a drink. This couldn't have been a worse spot to chose, given his current mood, like putting gasoline on a fire, or dumping a bucket of water on someone with a cold. It would just end badly. Then again, it wasn't like there were many places in the Apollon media building that he and the blonde _hadn't_ been to, on some level of interaction or another. They did both kind of work there.

The view was nice, though. It was cloudy, a bit, and a bit cold for this time of year, but the coffee took the chill of made it bearable. Autumn was already here, and it seemed that winter was already on it's way. Well, he had kind of spent the tail end of summer in the hospital. It seemed like August was yesterday, though it had admittedly been the end of summer already when a hole had been blown through him. Still, missing basically a whole month of nature, and the end of summer, no less, was kind of upsetting. Still, this kind of weather, with leaves falling, and a light breeze...it was kind of relaxing, if chilly.

There was a gentle crunch of fabric right beside him, and Kotetsu jerked lightly, having completely missed any sign of footsteps or anything. A very cold-looking Barnaby was leaning right beside him, holding on to his own coffee like it was the only thing keeping him warm, despite the leather jacket bunching up against his elbows where they were bent against the banister. Kotetsu said nothing; what could he do? They hadn't said anything to each other all day, there wasn't much to talk about.

He didn't have to, at it seemed that Bunny really had his own plans. "You trusted me." His fingers clenched gently around the cup, and he hoped that his gulp wasn't too audible. Kotetsu couldn't look him in the eye, and instead took a long gulp of coffee, clenching his eyes shut tightly. "You could have died, you know." green eyes were boring into the side of his head.

A long sigh, and his eyes opened. "I know."

"That's twice now." and if he'd thought the atmosphere was nice before, now it was something like breathing water. Kotetsu felt a bit like puking again, his stomach was starting to hurt. "That you've saved me. I-I never thanked you did I? Not for last time either. And, come to think about it, it didn't even cross my mind until recently that I **should** thank you for taking those hits or me, even though I know you would have done it for anyone." Kotetsu swallowed another mouthful of coffee, though he didn't really taste it, and his stomach churned again, making him dizzy. "I mean, I worried about you when you were in the hospital, it was like I'd made it my responsibility to ask after you. It was kind of hard to focus on my actual job, to be quite honest, and I asked about your shoulder everyday when you injured that, too. I...Thank you. For what you did."

"You...You know, that's the thing, isn't it? I wouldn't."

"What?"

Kotetsu smiled grimly into his cup. "I protect people, but I'm not a martyr. Even if given the choice, I probably wouldn't directly take on someone...something so dangerous for someone I didn't know." Damn, the coffee was almost gone—he was running out of excuses not to look at the blonde. His fingers laced around it gently, and a short breeze ruffled by quietly, punctuating the silence between them. "I was...prepared to die, actually, as scary as that sounds. I thought that Jake was seriously going to kill me; when I woke up in the hospital first, I thought I was in heaven. Of course, until the drugs wore off, that is. Then I thought it must have been hell. It didn't occur to me until I saw the others that I was actually still alive." That earned him a halfhearted snort, at least. He gave a light chuckle of his own, though there wasn't really any humour in it. "Same with when we were fighting with Lunatic that one time. His flame...it can't be put out by normal means. It just burns until nothing is left. Apparently, the only thing suitable for putting it out is being punched in the face in midair, and flung to the ground three stories below you, and to be quite honest, not a lot of people would survive that anyway." He grinned a little, "I didn't think about dying. Really, I don't want to. No one does. But it wasn't a matter of whether or not I'd die, it was about whether or not you'd live."The blonde just kind of sat there, leaning into the wind, face a bit flushed from the chill, no doubt mimicking the state of Kotetsu's own. It wasn't that there wasn't anything that could be put into words for someone who just said that they would die for you, but maybe it was something that didn't need words. That was what Kotetsu hoped, anyway. Silence would get you nowhere unless it meant something. He cleared his throat softly. "This...whatever this is that we've got, Bunny, I don't want to lose it. That's what I'm protecting."

"That's why you wont tell me?" Kotetsu blinked mildly, and Bunny gestured uninformative. "About the thing on your hip. Whatever it is."

A grimace. "Ahh. Yeah." he swirled the cup of coffee in his hands; it was kind of cold now. "That." There was another long, pregnant pause after that. ' _Everyone has deep, dark secrets that they don't want to share with anyone else, Bunny. Mine just happens to be deeper and darker than most._ ' He would have smiled, but then he would have looked a bit crazy given the situation. A deep breath: "I've killed people."

"...Everyone makes mistakes? A lot of accidents happen in this line of work-"

Kotetsu almost laughed right in his face. "No. Well, yes. But that's not what I'm talking about, and I think you know that." haha, his hands were shaking, weren't they? That's kind of funny, and a little dangerous. His coffee was in danger of spilling on some unsuspecting pedestrian. "I've _killed_ people. I've put a gun against someone's head and pulled the trigger, smiling all the while. When I was young, I once literally brained someone on a wall with my powers when they took me hostage in a bank robbery. I did it, because I thought it was the right thing to do. The **only** thing to do. I think..." another deep, deep breath, mostly to steady his voice and _shit, why was he shaking so badly?_ "I think whatever conceptions you have of me...they're kind of wrong. I'm no martyr. I'm no hero. But, you know." Bunny was calm, much calmer than he was. "That's why I **am** a Hero."

Bunny took a long drink of his coffee before replying, and when he did, it was short and quiet. "...For atonement?"

"Something like that." Kotetsu actually did laugh a little this time, but it was mostly to relieve the tension. It felt a bit like drowning. "You said, ''Everyone makes mistakes''. Well, I've made mistakes too. A whole _lot_ of mistakes, in fact, and a lot more than I'm willing to tell a lot of people." a wry grin. "Especially when I'm sober. Consider yourself lucky to hear this, Bunny."

"Ah." There was a note of surprise along with another he didn't really recognize in the blonde's voice, though it remained steady. He looked, and was met with a small, soft smile. "As I thought, smiling is a better expression for that face of yours."

His face turned bright scarlet, and Kotetsu's hand shot to his face before he could stop it, whether he was checking to make sure if he was lying, or to stop himself from being seen, he wasn't really sure. Either way, it wasn't like he was lying. "You—That was a serious topic, you-!"

"Kotetsu."

He choked on the rest of what he had been planning to say, nearly dribbling the rest of his (now frigid)coffee down his front.

"I'll wait for you."

A sharp exhalation of breath through Kotetsu's teeth. He was drowning, he couldn't breathe. "What...?"

"I've decided," that expression was definitely amusement, bastard, "I'll wait until you're ready to tell me what happened between you and Jake. It's...I'm curious, yes, but. But I've decided to trust you about this."

"You-" he voiced, shaky, and practically only air. A breathy whisper.

"We're friends, aren't we?" Ahh, that smile. It was a bit bittersweet, but Bunny was smiling at him. It was hard to resist just pulling him into a hug and- "Oh, you're looking me properly in the eye, too. Finally. You haven't done that for-"

Oh bugger resistance.

"Hey, what-! Wh-The hell are you doing?" a short struggle and a few quiet puffs of almost-laughter, and not-quite-exasperation. "Didn't you say we were having a serious conversation—stop that!" Tiger grinned, probably the happiest he had been in five years, wrapping his arms around the chill of his partner's body as the other half-struggled and protested. "Kotetsu, get off! You're—Wait, are you..?" Another autumn breeze rolled by, the gust deafened by the concrete walls around them, but the chill wasn't lost. "Bunny" echoed, over and over in the small alcove, a bright, if a tad watery smile on Kotetsu's face as he clenched the younger man to his chest.

' _Thank you._ '

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not a bad place to end it I guess. If I ever end up rewatching this series like I intend to, I'll probably continue it, but for now I think it's done. Happy reading!

**Author's Note:**

> This is a fairly old fic, just reposting it here.


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